In 2022, everything in the attention economy wants your attention. We have so much information flying in our faces 24/7. It's never been so important to be using the best tools and hacks for productivity and focusing effectively, especially if you're studying or working from home.
Without a good toolkit to protect your focus it’s very easy to get very distracted.
So let’s cut to these super important tools.
#1 Phone Notifications ⚙️
Notifications are a gateway for companies to your attention. Your notification settings is a really simple tool you can use to control what is and what isn’t worthy of your attention. By simply turning them off you are reducing the number of times unwanted notifications will disrupt your focus.
When you download a new app or an old app stops interesting you be mindful of this and update your settings.
#2 Do Not Disturb 🌙
This is related to above, but your Do Not Disturb mode is a lot more convenient to toggle on and off throughout the day. It’s very useful when there’s an app like Messenger which you want to get notifications.
I admit, it can be quite easy to forget to use it. One way to to remember is to make it simple — just turn it on everyday in the morning when you start work and turn it off when you finish work in the afternoon. (I also have a little note in my to-do list that reminds me).
#3 Distraction blocker browser extensions ⛔
Your phone isn’t the only thing that can distract you. It often isn’t realistic blocking websites completely but you can use extensions to make them less distracting and less likely to throw you down a rabbit hole.
- For Chrome: DF Tube and News Feed Eradicator work great.
- For Safari: Try #blockit.
- For Edge: Try Minimal YouTube, Total Adblock and UnDistracted.
#4 Brave Browser 🦁
This is a really cool browser that has an inbuilt ad blocker. It also blocks cross-site trackers for you. Less ads = less distractions = more focus.
But if you feel like it, you can turn on a certain setting and Brave will actually pay you to show you ads (with their crypto token BAT). The ads on the new tab page of the browser are quite subtle and often visually appealing. This marks the beginning of a change in the attention economy where we get paid for their attention rather than giving it away for free.
#5 Unscroll 💡
Yes, we’re very biased but this list just wouldn’t be complete without Unscroll on here. Unscroll is is the all-in-one social media feed that makes it easy to spend less time scrolling and then use your saved time for more productive things.
