10 tools for focusing attention at work

Task managers, timers, noise generators, site blockers and other useful things.

Many of us work from home during these difficult days, but few manage to maintain concentration and remain productive. Some are disturbed by children, others want to sleep longer or watch a couple of episodes of their favorite TV series. No matter what distractions you are, these programs and extensions will help you do your job better.

Focus Matrix

Mac Task Manager based on Eisenhower Matrix to help prioritize correctly and not break deadlines. For simplicity, all incoming tasks are divided by time and importance, while urgent matters may not be very significant, and non-urgent ones, on the contrary, are extremely important.

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Focus Matrix - Task Manager

Developer: Denys yevenko

Price: Free

Pomotroid

Technics Pomodoro Is the easiest way to deal with procrastinationmaintaining a balance between work and play. This app for Windows, macOS and Linux will keep you on the 25 minutes of work, 5 minutes of rest. If the standard time intervals are not suitable, you can set your own in the settings.

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Hocus focus

Multitasking is one of the biggest enemies of productivity. Hocus Focus for Mac helps you avoid distractions by keeping only the current window active and hiding the rest. The application has several profiles that allow you to configure the time after which the windows will be minimized. By default, the delay is 30 seconds, but in focus mode, as soon as you switch to one of the applications, all others are hidden.

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Momentum

The Momentum browser extension is designed to deter the temptation to procrastinate on the Internet: it displays inspiring images and motivating quotes on all new tabs. It displays the time, the main goal for the day, and task lists. All this so that you do not forget why you went to the Internet.

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Momentum

Developer: momentumdash.com

Price: 0

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Momentumby Momentum Dashboard

Developer: Developer

Price: Free

Rooster

Like Momentum, Rooster uses Chrome's new tab, which tends to be tempting to mess around. The extension will show how much time was spent on which pages, and it will also be able to display notifications that you have been on unproductive sites for too long.

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Rooster for Chrome ™

Developer: getrooster.in

Price: 0

Just Focus

If you are not very self-controlled, the Just Focus extension for Chrome will help. Enter in its settings the addresses of the sites to which you are most distracted, and after turning on the focus mode, they will be temporarily blocked. When you go to a blacklisted page, the Just Focus screen will open with an inspiring quote instead.

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Just Focus

Developer: Website

Price: 0

Self-Control

A more hardcore analogue of the previous extension in the form of a program for macOS. Self-Control is tougher: after setting the timer, all sites from the blacklist will not open in any browser. Moreover, closing the application will do nothing: the blocking will be removed only after the specified time has elapsed.

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Focusmusic.fm

When everyone around is buzzing and interfering, and there is no separate room to retire, all that remains is to put on headphones and fence off with music. Focusmusic.fm has four channels, including electronics and classics, and sounds of rain. You can listen to both from the site and through mobile applications.

Go to the site →

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focusmusic.fm

Developer: Ryan Ghods

Price: Free

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focus music

Developer: Felucca Inc.

Price: Free

Spectacle

In the office, many have large monitors, but at home they usually have to settle for a laptop. Spectacle for Mac makes it easier to manage windows by resizing them and distributing screen space depending on the task. All manipulations take place using hot keys, you don't have to aim at the borders with the cursor.

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Flowstate

An unusual text editor for those who cannot work without a magic pen. Flowstate for macOS will force you to write on pain of losing all typed text. If you stop typing, then after 5 seconds everything will be deleted. So procrastinators simply have no choice.

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Flowstate

Developer: Overman

Price: 749 rubles