Managing Distractions

Distractions created by technology are a legitimate concern of teachers and parents. In recent principal coffees with parents, parents ranked technology-related distractions as one of their top issues with which to contend.

The initial reaction is to take away the devices when they are impeding on a student’s ability to complete necessary tasks and get enough sleep at night. In extreme cases, that might be needed, but ultimately that isn’t going to solve the problem. Students need to learn, practice, and be supported in the process of managing themselves and their time with technology devices. Most students learn to do this on their own because they experience unwanted failures and realize what the problem was. Other students need some assistance, however. Ironically, technology can actually help control distractions and improve time management. There is an app for that!

There is a great app called Self Control that students can install on their Macs to help control distractions. I sent an email about this back in September, but I thought I would remind you so you can remind students about it when necessary, especially as we are heading into the busy end-of-semester time period. You might even want to use it yourself sometimes!

Self-control is a free Mac app that helps you block distracting websites for a set period of time. It has two functions: blacklisting and whitelisting.

Use the BLACKLIST option to turn off access to one or more websites that cause distraction. The rest of the Internet is still available. For example, if Facebook and TMZ.com are distracting you, put those URLs (www.facebook.com and www.tmz.com) into the list. Choose the amount of time you need to focus, and only those two sites will be blocked for that amount of time.

Use the WHITELIST option to turn off access to the whole Internet except the site(s) needed. For example, if you need to focus on writing a paper in Google Docs, choose Whitelist and put in the Google Docs URL (docs.google.com). Choose the amount of time you need to focus, and the entire Internet except Google Docs will unavailable for that amount of time.

It’s very easy to use. Check out this video tutorial for how to use it (note: the tutorial only shows the blacklist option).

This app can be used both in and out of school.

Download Self Control here: https://selfcontrolapp.com/