Best apps for limiting ‘cyberloafing’

Focus Booster is easily our favorite way to limit the work time we fritter away on Facebook, Twitter, and various addictive websites. Its method is “beautifully simple and involves neither stick nor carrot.” This app encourages focused work merely by putting a timer on your screen and counting down 25 minutes. When the time’s up, you’re given five minutes to waste as you wish.

Nanny for Google Chrome lets you set precise limits on the time you spend on any site. But exceeding a limit provokes an admonishing message and a complete block on access to the site. You’ll likely disable it in no time.

Rescue Time is “the Weight Watchers of information diets.” The app tracks your Web activity and breaks it down on a dashboard that also shows when you were most productive during the day. Unfortunately, poring over the data can become a new time eater.

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Source: FT.com