I’m working to remove distractions

It’s a common scenario for anyone that works on/with computers, or anyone that just wants to focus when they find him or her self sitting in front of one: there are so many distractions. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, instant messaging, email, RSS feeds, and calendars are your typical culprits.

Personally, I can focus, but I want to do better. But before I start, I want to at least rule out one option for getting there: I won’t use any service that blocks a website or application for an allotted period of time. Example: You set it to not let you on Facebook from 9 to 5. Simple.

Not only do I like to think I have more self control than that, but I really don’t think that the sites or applications simply being available is any real problem – at least not for me. I think it’s all those damn, pesky pop-up notifications and other reminders found on your screen. Or at least on my screen.

So here’s what I’m going to do. For a week, maybe two, I’m going to cut back on that stuff by:

• Setting my browser home page to a blank screen instead of Google Reader
• Removing the Bookmarks Toolbar from my browser
• Employing the Think application to keep me focused on one application at a time
• Disabling the GMail Notifier for my personal email (I cannot leave an email marked as unread even for 5 minutes)
• Auto-hiding my Apple Dock so that bouncing applications and notifications don’t suck my attention away (and it has basically been rendered useless by Quicksilver anyways)
• And even enduring the pangs associated with disabling Growl

This little experiment of mine really isn’t scientific (as if you couldn’t tell) and I won’t actually be collecting any data about how much of my time was unfocused. But hey, if I come out of this feeling better about how I use my time then that’s all that matters.

Experiment commence.

It feels so good

One of the best features of Gmail is the Report Spam button. Is it really any better than the delete button? Probably not. It might help Gmail develop better spam filters. Might. But that’s beside the point. The Report Spam button is a lot like the close door button in an elevator – it makes you feel good though it really isn’t doing all that much.

My credit card bill is in… REPORT SPAM

An ex wants to talk… REPORT SPAM

Actual spam… REPORT SPAM

Now I feel good. But it shouldn’t stop here. The report spam feature needs to be universally adopted. My suggestion for top priority: Skype. I want to hit the report spam button and have the person be blocked and the conversation closed. All one action. And it will make me feel good too. No, sweetNsinglexoxo I do not want to see pictures of you. REPORT SPAM.

One day the report spam feature will make it into casual conversation. That will be a great day.