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ESCAPE BY FOCUSLIST FOR WINDOWS MANUALS
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Since OFFTIME is constantly monitoring your phone usage in the background, you can set tracking accuracy lower (less battery consumption) or higher (more battery consumption) depending upon your needs (opens in new tab) In fact, because of a quirk with the way it works with iOS, OFFTIME usually reported my smartphone time as the time my phone was on rather than when I actually used it, so my numbers were heavily skewed and not nearly as useful as I might have hoped.

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The app is informative when it tells you how much time you're putting into specific apps like Facebook (one of Rinik’s mantras is, “Just use social media less”), but that’s only available on the Android version. On the more feature-rich Android version, you can restrict access to any app on your phone you find distracting, as well as block calls, texts, and other notifications that might disturb you during a work period, while still allowing certain critical contacts through. The app lets you set a time and provides alerts when you try to go into a different app. I used the iOS version of OFFTIME with an iPhone 7 Plus. Setting a total daily limit on smartphone usage can help you focus more on what’s important and less on what’s distracting you (opens in new tab)

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OFFTIME (opens in new tab) offers a full version of its app for Android devices on Google Play for free with in-app purchases, as well as a Light version for Apple iOS devices, which costs $2.99 on the App Store, and also includes in-app purchases.Īt present, upgrading either version to Pro with an in-app purchase of $2.99 lets you invite up to 25 friends to an OFFTIME session, with more features promised in the future.Ī look at OFFTIME. While the effects may not be as obvious, they can certainly be as damaging, particularly when an immovable deadline looms! Taking some OFFTIME Unlike sugary meals, the effects of distractions aren't as obvious as gaining weight.” I think we were always prone to distractions, just like we were always prone to eating sugar snacks - that's just the animal part of us. Pick up your phone, you'll get to read a new message. Rinik had this to say: ”It's not just humans - the reward system of our brain works the same way as animals. I also wondered about the technology aspect. In working with the apps and knowing my own history of being distracted, I wondered what it is about humans that makes us so prone to losing focus.Īccording to Professor McCoy, it’s a “desire to be connected to more stimulating options, and boredom.” This seemed reasonable, especially when having to work on something particularly tedious - it seems like there’s something, anything better to be doing. It's not just humans - the reward system of our brain works the same way as animals. I used each of the apps in the order that follows, in a rotating cycle, sometimes in the same day and sometimes on separate days. I made sure I used the apps as suggested and only allowed myself the occasional distraction for making notes for this article. As such, it was critical that I perform at the highest levels possible.

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I needed to get six manuals done in roughly a week before I left for a vacation where I’d be inaccessible for large swaths of time. This proved a good time for me to test apps that reduced distractions because for my day job, where I’m a technical writer for a company that supports the air traffic control industry, it was crunch-time. Between the apps and the experts, I'll get down to just how practical enabling a distraction-free working environment really is and whether one can every truly reach productivity nirvana.

Escape by focuslist for windows