OSX Apps To Help You Focus & Be Productive

You know what helps me focus? Not messing around with half a dozen apps intended to make me more productive.

Yeah, I know that a Real Productive Person(tm) should answer: "Just stop trying to find a widget that will make your more productive and get on with the work, dammit!"

But I think that different people can get to the same place using different roads. To some the "helpers" might be superfluous and pure willpower is all that is required. To others they might help give a necessary extra push.

I'm definitely looking forward to trying some of the "isolator" types of software, because I find that I'm usually distracted by others thing that I see around on my desktop (they're just so tempting to quickly switch to, just to check if XYZ..). Maybe if I see fewer of those others thing I'll be less tempted to switch to them.

Worth a shot. Won't replace discipline, but hey, everybody seems to think that an uncluttered desk, an uncluttered office (an uncluttered life!) are the way to go. Same should work for my virtual desktop.

Apps might be helpful but nothing is better then self determination and self-discipline especial when outcome of work directly impact your profit and well being. Multitasking is a bitch of today's productivity. It makes you think that it helps you get things faster but research indicates then on the contrary it does not. The laps of time you brain takes to switch between the task is the waist. It is also very addictive. I used to multitask a lot and now try to discipline myself not to do it unless one task is taking time without my direct control(like coping large files or running long process). Sometimes I find myself ridiculously starting to read and article or code few lines of code while my brain start doing something also and looking for other task to start. I started finding it destructive and in need to eliminate.

I'm fond of Freedom - http://macfreedom.com/

It kills your networking a configurable period, with the only way to circumvent it being a reboot. Or so it claims. The claim alone is enough to keep me from trying simple things like an ifup. And that's what I needed.

I'd have to say that Self Control is probably the only useful one for me. If an IM pops up or I have an urge to browse HN, I'd circumvent any of the apps that just dims other apps if I want. And for the Pomodoro timers it's too easy to deviate off schedule, and too many tasks that are too short to time.

Self control however is ingenious. I can impulsively block sites, only to block impulses to visit sites afterwards.

That reminds me though, I seriously have to start using the procrastination feature here at HN.

Auto-hiding the dock has easily been the most productive change I've made to OS X.

We should add Guest Login to the list. Because nothing focuses the mind like total data loss. (OK it almost certainly affects productivity, but 1 out of 2 ain't bad.)

Multitasking is often necessary but can decrease focus and productivity, I agree. But I often require several apps to complete a single task. So hiding apps wouldn't help me be productive. I find judicial use of "Spaces" along with 2 or three large monitors helpd me quickly focus on the task at hand and get the job done. I like to keep the finder open in all Spaces. And learn the key commands for tabbing through windows and applications, etc.

I use OSX's Single Application Mode:

defaults write com.apple.dock single-app -bool true

killAll Dock

Has been a big boost.

I like Spirited Away.http://drikin.com/spiritedaway/ I found it a long time ago, it auto hides windows that have not been active in a long time, keeps things simple.

Not a bad list. The Pomodoro timer is built on Adobe AIR so it works under Linux as well.

I've just recently been trying pomodoro so I'm looking forward to trying some tomorrow.

This is a very comprehensive list. I'll have to try a few of those apps myself.

Just tried Isolator, pretty nifty!

This doesn't really seem like it belongs on HN...