Cures for the Web’s Universe of Distractions

With a wealth of communication tools, the Internet has become a near-ubiquitous presence in the personal and work lives of millions of people. Everything from communications with the boss, family, and distant friends to innumerable pages of kittens being cute is accessible with a few clicks of a mouse or taps of the finger.

In short, the Internet is the single most distracting though useful tool of the millennium. As increasing numbers of people use it for work, or work from home, finding ways to avoid the distraction it also presents is becoming an industry in and of itself.

With self discipline, a few apps, and a little tweaking, you can reduce the distractions of the Web and keep your work and play separate and rewarding.

 Take control of your time

 One thing you can do is make sure the right communications reach you at the right time, and the distracting ones are kept at bay until you’re ready to address them.

An easy start is to establish one email address for work-related traffic, and another for personal. It’s not good to be distracted by cute pictures of the newest baby in the family when you’re supposed to be checking for emails from the boss.

Keeping work and home life separated into different email accounts is not always the ideal solution, though. Websites like Grexit.com offer a variety of tweaks to keep email a productive tool. They can separate those amusing forwards from coworkers from the crucial inquiries and orders from the boss.

Take control of your smart device

There are ways to tailor smartphones so that only certain calls, messages, and alerts come through. The Android marketplace offers a wealth of apps that allow only let certain calls through on your phone.

Alternatively, contacts grouped as work-related can be excluded during certain times of the day with apps such as Llama or Automateit. Perhaps you want to make sure calls from certain friends don’t ring through the phone during the busiest work periods.

Or maybe you don’t want any calls coming through at all unless it’s an emergency from the kids. All these customizations help eliminate distractions while ensuring you’re accessible in cases of critical need. iOs also allows native customizations that lets you set VIP contacts and silence others.

Take control of your desktop

Finally, there are apps for the desktop that make self-discipline a little easier. Chrome and Firefox both offer a variety of plugins that can maintain workflow by blocking various sites such as Facebook — or anything else you catch yourself checking obsessively — for set periods of time.

For example, Leechblock for Firefox or ChromeNanny for Chrome play personal net nanny by preventing sites of your choice from loading. There are a variety of plugins and addons for this service; some allow websites to be accessed only at certain times of the day, or limit the time you can use a site before being blocked.

With the Internet expanding every day to offer new sites, distractions, and tools, the focus of the average computer user becomes ever more divided. Fortunately, the Internet also provides the means to take back some control.