6 Free Chrome Extensions to Stay Distraction Free
It’s easy to get distracted from a topic once you find yourself surrounded by friends, peers, and families constantly active on social media.
Checking your Facebook feed every minute, scrolling through Instagram posts, and reading tweets on trending topics. Time flies, it all adds up pretty fast, and you don’t even notice.
Try to remember how many times you watched an important presentation on Youtube, and you see a video of your favorite sport in the recommendation?
You start watching it, then another and one after another. 45 minutes pass, and suddenly, you realize you don’t even remember what you had to do next.
The Internet is a place full of distractions. If you don’t find a way to block everything that forces you to procrastinate, you’ll end up wasting valuable time and ideas.
If you’re suffering from writer’s block, these tools might be the best solution for you.
Fortunately, Chrome extensions can help by effectively blocking distractive websites and let you focus on the task at hand.
I’m sharing the 6 best chrome extensions that’ll help you stay focused and keep every distraction away in this post.
StayFocusd
StayFocusd is a popular choice when it comes to increasing productivity. It helps you stay focused on blocking websites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
It has features like lock mode someone other than you can set a password to access the extension settings. This will make sure you don’t give up.
You can choose which websites to block and make sure you don’t access them. It also shows you the time you’ve been using certain websites, so you know it’s enough.
You can also limit how much screen time you can have in a day.
What’s great about StayFocusd is its strict mode. When you activate the strict mode, you won’t be able to change anything until the next day—a pretty good feature for people struggling to keep up with their willpower.
UnDistracted
UnDistrcted is a fairly new Chrome extension, and it’s straightforward to use as well.
It helps you block Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Youtube by default. You can switch which sites you need to block by clicking the extension icon.
You can also add other websites if you like. Simply click on the Undistracted icon, select Settings, and enter the URL of the websites you want to block.
You can also partially block certain parts of a website. On Facebook, you can hide the news feed, chat sidebar and like, share and comment links from all posts.
UnDistracted will sync all your data between your signed-in devices as well. There’s an option to add a redirect URL of your choice if you wish to go to a specific website when you try to access blocked ones.
StrictWorkflow
The chrome extension to help you follow the popular and pretty effective Pomodoro technique.
The Pomodoro technique is a productivity strategy. You start by setting a timer for 25 minutes and focusing on whatever the task is, without taking a break and uninterrupted. After every 25 minutes, you take a 3-5 minute break. After repeating 4 cycles, you take a 20-minute relaxation.
StrictWorkflow is a chrome extension that follows the Pomodoro philosophy strictly. Once you activate the timer, the only way to stop it is to remove the extension or close the browser. Meaningless, you’re desperate to do so, you won’t get distracted by social media, video streaming websites, etc.
It also blocks all the popular social media and streaming apps. It also has a whitelist option where you can add a list of websites. These whitelist websites will be the only ones you can access while the timer is running.
StrictWorkflow is a solid extension for people who will addiction to checking their feeds periodically.
Forest: Stay Focused Be Present
Another simple but one of the most effective chrome extension when it comes to improving focus. Forest: Stay Focused Be Present (FSFBP) too works on a track and reward system, something similar to the Pomodoro technique.
However, it’s kind of addictive on its own. To get started, you start the Forest timer, which means you’re virtually planting a seed”. The seed will continue to grow into a plan and eventually a tree, which will later transform into a forest.
But the moment you get distracted and try to access the websites you’ve blacklisted, the plant will die. In the beginning, it might not look like a big deal, but if you practice staying focused till the Forest timer stops, you’ll have a full-grown forest.
Which you’ll find pretty hard to destroy when you know the team behind FSFBP plant a tree as you grow and spend the Forest coins you earn by staying productive.
It’s beautiful and a unique way to stay focused, like a game where you’re building your own forest and nourishing it with your focus and discipline.
RescueTime
RescueTime is a little more advanced extension. It has a couple of exclusive features that make it extremely hard to ignore. You can whitelist specific websites, along with particular pages to access while the timer is active.
It has an advanced reporting dashboard where it shows you how productive you are as you progress.
It tracks your activity online and classifies them into productive and non-productive tasks. You can also track offline activities, such as a phone call.
The most important thing is RescueTime shows how you spend your time online, precisely.
It gives you a reality check and a deep understanding of where most of your time is getting wasted. That means you’ll know exactly what you should avoid and where to improve.
RescueTime is the only premium tool on this list due to its unique features and ease of use.
Tide – Focus Timer & White Noise
How about writing in the middle of a forest or at a beach with nothing but a laptop on your lap?
Well, Tide can make it happen. Tide is a timer-based focus booster. It comes with a different preset of timers to choose from to start your session.
It also comes with two different modes, namely:
- Work Mode
- Immersive Mode
Work mode will begin the Pomodoro cycle, where you’ll have to complete short sessions before taking a break.
The immersive mode blocks all the distractive websites leading only the ones you’ve labeled as a whitelist.
What’s cool about Tide is the noise & sound media it comes with. Different sounds come straight from nature, including the Forest, Cafe, Library, the white noise of rain, and the ocean.
The soothing sound effect can help you relieve stress and anxiety, and you’ll feel like working in a peaceful environment.
Whichever extension you choose, just make sure to follow the timer and focus trackers religiously.
In the end, your distractions are created by your subconsciousness. If you truly wish to improve your focus and finish the task at hand, think about the consequences that would occur if you don’t complete the task.
Think about your goals, your values, your ambition.
Why do you do what you do?
What will the future look like if you keep stalling?
Think of all the good things that will come when you religiously follow your goal.
I believe that should help you a lot more than any website blocker or focus aiding extension.
Following a routine with discipline will help you achieve your goals faster. Here are a couple more articles you’d like to read:
- 15 Best Chrome Extensions for Bloggers (Highly Useful Ones)
- Affilitizer: Best Chrome Extension For Affiliate Marketers
- 14 Highly Useful Marketing Tools (That Every Blogger Should Use)
Let me know which one you choose in the comments below.