Desktop Distractions? Block 'Em Out!

So, you're working on a paper. Chugging away, everything's going great... and then, since you have Facebook running in the background, one of those little popups comes up at the bottom of your screen. You stop writing to read it...

(30 minutes later)

Oh, yeah, you were writing a paper. Hmmm... train of thought has not only left the station, but it took all your baggage with it.

There are some ways to deal with desktop distractions. Today, we'll look at some options. If you have other techniques or technology that you find helpful, post it in the comments!

Clear the Visual Clutter with Ghoster or Isolator

Concentrate only on one window at a time and dim the rest of your screen. Both programs work quite similarly, making only the active application clearly visible.

Ghoster (Windows)
Ghoster does a nice job of clearing the background, though it doesn't (as you can see) block all visibility. However, with everything in the dark, I'm much less likely to wander off to it. My favorite part is that it also dims out the Task Bar, which likes to distract me with its flashing lights and popups.






Isolate (Mac)
Isolate can be configured in a few different ways - my favorite is the complete blackout. Because my Mac doesn't pop stuff up at me nearly as often as my Windows machine does, I'm less worried about the fact that the Dock doesn't dim.

Really Distracted? Lock Yourself Out With LeechBlock!

If you know that the siren song of the web will be calling your name (shhh, Facebook, I'll be with you later!), but you still need to use the, well, useful sites to complete your homework, you might want to try LeechBlock.
LeechBlock - Firefox extension (Windows/Mac)

LeechBlock allows you to specify specific sites, like MySpace or Facebook, that tend to be less than productive for you. You choose the sites, you choose the times to block them. You can, of course, choose to unblock them, but generally the extra steps you need to do that will help you remember why you blocked them in the first place.