Top tools to help you be more productive at work

In this digital age, a surfeit of information can easily distract us from the task in hand, whether you’re an office employee or a home-based VA. From liking your friends’ holiday pictures on Facebook to reading trivial yet highly entertaining articles on Cracked, the internet can ruin our concentration and prevent us from finishing the task at hand.

However, it can also be our saviour in that it provides numerous tools to help you get back on track from that momentary lapse of concentration and regain momentum – try these ones on for size.

Stayfocusd is an extension for Google Chrome that limits the amount of time you spend on certain websites with a tendency to divert you from the job at hand, allowing you to block entire sites, specific subdomains, pages and content such as videos, games and so on.

RescueTime actually measures your productivity by logging every minute you’re on the computer, so it knows how much time you spend in each application and on each site – a terrifying prospect for any slackers out there.

Leechblock takes blocking sites one step further and lets you save block lists, as well as blocking access to a page after a pre-determined time limit has been reached.

An application for Mac OS X, SelfControl lets you screen out any addictive, but not work-related, websites. Beware though: even if you get through that pile of work quicker than originally anticipated, you won’t be able to turn off the pre-set timer.

Productivity Owl is an app for Google Chrome that takes a stern line on time-wasting: this wise old owl pops up on every page and monitors the amount of time you take to find the information you need from the page. If you’re not quick enough, the owl will close the tab, making you work quicker to beat the clock.

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