Two Tools to Help You Stay Focussed at Work
How do you deal with frustration and procrastination during your work day? Do you take a coffee break? Walk around the block? Do a few yoga stretches?
Or are you like most of us and jump into your social media accounts to check in with what the world’s up to and maybe search for cat videos…
Let’s face it, a quick ten minute distraction isn’t really going to mess up your day too much, is it? But how often does that ten minutes turn into thirty, or even hour and before you know it you’re behind in your work with looming deadlines and rising stress levels…
Don’t worry my friend, I have you. Here are two awesome apps I use everyday to ensure my quick social media check-in doesn’t turn into a disastrous Alice down the rabbit hold scenario.
Mindful Browsing
Mindful Browsing is a Google Chrome extension which (as they say on their website) beautifully interrupts mindless browsing and gets you back to life.You start by creating a list of sites on which you usually procrastinate and waste time – like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube or news sites.
You then create a list of things you would rather do instead – like taking five deep breaths, trying those yoga stretches or if you are currently working from home – hugging your dog 🙂
Then every time you try to access one of your specified sites a beautiful image appears on your screen prompting you to think about your actions and make a mindful decision. The best part about this app (at least from my point of view) is if I do make the decision to access the site for 10 minutes, after that time has expired up comes the prompt again forcing me to make another decision on whether to waste another 10 minutes or get myself back on task.
Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator
Ok, now I do concede that some of us legitimately need to use social media accounts (or specifically Facebook) as part of our business activities. To do things like respond to messages from leads and clients, reply to comments on posts, keep engagement up in groups we manage and to ask and answer questions in our networking groups.
But come on, how hard is it to do all these things when there is your newsfeed sitting front and centre, just begging to be scrolled!?!
If this is you, I would like to introduce you to Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator. This is another Google Chrome extension and what it normally does is replace your newsfeed with a quote.
However this screenshot was taken after their last update and the quote has disappeared, but I am sure they will iron out that bug in the not too distant future.
This extension allows you to get in to Facebook, answer questions, respond to comments and do whatever you need to do and get out again without getting distracted by your newsfeed items and ending up in the endless scroll. I use this one everyday and it’s also a favourite of my Melbourne friends who have hidden conspiracy theorists in their friends list…
And another cool thing, they have just expanded this app to also work on your Twitter feed and have plans to extend it out to other social media channels as well.
Have you tried Mindful Browsing or Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator? If so I would love to hear how you find them!
