Comments on: Free yourself from distractions with Concentrate

By: 03/02/2010 : Personal Development Day | My Daily Top RSS Selection

03/02/2010 : Personal Development Day | My Daily Top RSS Selection — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:50:59 +0000

[...] Free yourself from distractions with Apple Mac Concentrate If you’re a Mac user and often find yourself tempted to goof off when you should be working, I want to introduce you to Concentrate. [...]

By: Danae

Danae — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:51:28 +0000

I was just thinking there should be suck a program for PCs. I’m struggling to write my thesis and Mozilla Firefox is my big enemy, I get easily distracted to check emails, my facebook, etc…

By: Jill

Jill — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:22:12 +0000

Heh, I multitask all of the time when I’m on the computer…luckily the SIX math classes I’ll have to be taking to finish my Bachelor’s (plus like only one Psych class left) won’t have me NEEDING to use the computer but I’ll want to play instead of do math! Too bad there’s nothing like that you can use offline.

By: Maura

Maura — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:04:06 +0000

@Karyn. Thanks for your reply. I didn’t get the impression of flippant. No worries. And I hope you didn’t get “defensive” from me. I wholeheartedly agree with all that you said.

And you, too, @Richard

Perhaps it is partly due to age (40-something, btw), but I definitely have issues with “technology”. As my daughter’s 8th grade science teacher told them on the first day of school:

“Technology Giveth, and Technology Taketh Away”

ICAM.

By: Richard | RichardShelmerdine.com

Richard | RichardShelmerdine.com — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:38:06 +0000

I think that is a little overkill. Just start to exercise your personal power and forget about all these silly programs. I hear that whenever you find a new productivity tool you should put it down stop salivating and take some action! Good post.

By: Karyn

Karyn — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:35:12 +0000

@Malcolm – Maura was the one who raised the original cell phone question, tongue in cheek, as it turns out. I was the one advocating turning the cell phone off. As I said in my reply to Maura, I do just that, often and cheerfully.

By: Karyn

Karyn — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:33:58 +0000

@Maura – In case you got a different impression, I wasn’t being flippant; I was honestly telling you what works for me. The difference between the cell phone and the computer is that the cell phone is not an intrinsic element of a workspace, hence it can be silenced and/or turned off and put somewhere out of sight so you’re not looking to see if the signal light is flashing. (Yes, I do know how distraction works… lol.) As someone who works mostly overnights, I very much appreciate the fact that cell phones, unlike the landline phones of the past, at least, allow me this kind of control. No more being awakened by a ringing phone–and this naturally evolved into “no more being DISTRACTED” by a ringing phone while I’m working at my desk, doing yoga, etc.

Hey, that’s why Goddess invented voice mail. And text messages will, like e-mail, still be there to be read when I’m ready to read them.

Anyway, I mentioned it because, as you said, a lot of people, especially young people, seem to be unaware of the power in their hands. And I didn’t know your age, so I thought you were the student in question.

As far as the computer application goes, I completely understand the point of it and have no quibbles with it. I prefer to modify my behavior rather than my computer, but whatever works for someone and isn’t hurting anyone, and all that.

By: Maura

Maura — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:02:53 +0000

@Karyn – yes, of course a cell phone could be turned off, or set to silent, etc. And, as pointed out by Malcolm, you can CLOSE web sites and other apps that are a “distraction”. The concept of Concentration, I think, is voluntary forced discipline. Some people need this nudge to stay on task — as they don’t feel intrinsically capable of self-discipline. Sad, but true. I was somewhat kidding about my cell phone comment, but try telling your response to my two kids (high school and college). I don’t think they know there IS an off button — just that the battery occasionally needs to be recharged

By: Donna

Donna — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:42:42 +0000

I can see this being helpful to keep my daughter from using the internet when she’s supposed to be using the word processor.

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:49:29 +0000

OK, I’ve checked the date – it is not April 1st – what’s going on? This CANNOT be real. It must be a joke, right? For example, Karyn could surely turn her phone OFF? My computer is only a humble PC but it still has a red cross in the top right hand corner of each screen enabling me to CLOSE a program I am not using. Is this too hard to do?

By: Meredith from Penelope Loves Lists

Meredith from Penelope Loves Lists — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:43:12 +0000

Very, very intriguing. Downloading now!

By: Wellington Grey

Wellington Grey — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:48:12 +0000

Thank you so much for posting this. I was about to go on a big google search for applications to save me from myself. You probably just saved me an afternoon’s research. Thank you!

By: Abeline

Abeline — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:36:43 +0000

Free version: a loved one with a baseball bat. :p

By: deb

deb — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:01:13 +0000

There are a couple similar free applications for the mac:
think http://freeverse.com/mac/product/?id=7013
spirited away http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15844

They aren’t as complete a solution, but may be right for someone.

By: Karyn

Karyn — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:23:01 +0000

@Maura – You can turn off the text feature of your cell phone by powering it off. Alternatively, you can just “silence all” and sit the phone somewhere away from your workspace so it doesn’t distract you visually. I find that helps when I don’t want to be interrupted by calls or texts!