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Staying focused

Knowledge thirst. There's always a need to learn more, to know more, to do more, and now. Being so absorbed in the process of trying to find out more, people might shift from their main goal, which is getting things done. One such big absorber is the internet. So much information, so much diversity, so much availability. Reading about the bird flu is two clicks away from finding out that some celebrity starred in the latest most expensive movie ever made.

There's something strange about using a browser with tabs capability (Firefox, opera, etc.). When you read some resource that provides links, there's a tendency of opening them in background tabs for further reading, and than in the next tab you find out more information and more links that are open also in background and the process continues. Sometime when you think you have enough tabs open to keep you busy for a long time, you stop opening new tabs, and set a goal of closing every and each one of them (after reading them of course). This is a huge time eater, and if you cannot control yourself, there is a tool that helps you control this. It's called "Temptation blocker" and its main task is to prevent you from using particular programs, for a certain period of time, in which you really have to get some work done.

It's a naive anti-procrastination tool, but it works. You set it to block a program for lets say 4 hours, and in this time you are not allowed to start the program without restarting the computer which is very painful and less probable. You can block your browser, your mailer, your instant messaging tool, or whatever keeps you from doing actual work.

It works at home (when trying to finish some projects or technical papers), but also in the office when you really should do work.

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