Freedom from distractions

I'm sure you can relate to this scenario. You sit at your desk about to start on that important task, but you first check your social feed... then after a number of scrolls and clicks 30 minutes or more has passed and you haven't started anything. You then feel guilty and take another 20 minutes to get settled again to finally get some work done, and an hour has passed before you got off on the right track. If this happens a number of times a day, you can imagine how many hours were wasted.

Social media apps are fabulous, don't get me wrong, but they are also addicting and distracting. The clever people who built them have studied deeply into human psychology and behaviour and have made our favourite apps so appealing, that it can be very difficult to shake the addiction, for some at least.

Now I'm not saying you should delete apps all together. We get a lot of benefits from sharing study inspiration on Tumblr and Instagram for example. It's just a matter of finding ways to gain your time and productivity back when apps start being destructive. Your time is your most valuable asset. Don't throw it away, and make it work for you to achieve your goals. 

There's a few apps now out there. One that I have tried is Freedom. So here's how it works if you haven't already used them. You basically set which apps you want to block in your settings in block mode, and by default in Freedom Social Media apps are blocked. You then turn on a timer for how long you want those apps blocked and you start your work. It's that simple. I've used the free version of Freedom, which will require me to pay a few dollars to upgrade after I have blocked apps for 7 sessions. Upon writing this, this was the situation. Times change and no doubt when you read this there will be more available. 

Take control of your time. It's our most valuable asset if invested well.