Sometimes when working, we get a “loading event” whereby we sit waiting for the loading to end, then we are quick to open distraction tabs. When we opened the account, 5-20 minutes went by, and the loading event ended in just 1 minute. This is the vicious cycle we have to go through daily, and this is how I fixed my loading distraction habits:

Lofi Music

Every morning before I start work, I play a Lofi Station on YouTube; this makes it so that my ears don’t get bored quickly. Since Lofi music doesn’t have words, it cannot easily distract my train of thought or whatever I am doing. Contrarily, I listen to the KERA Radio Podcast station while doing repetitive work that doesn’t require thinking to keep my brain busy. You can read more about why it has become my favorite way to listen to podcasts on this blog here.

Redirect

Music alone can’t stop the loading event distractions, so we have to redirect content from all the social media networks to our Pomodoro. Pomodoro helps to store all the notes and log the time you worked. Since loading events take an average of 1 minute, it gives you the time to take notes and check on your last to-dos.

What’s the best way to set up redirects?

The most efficient way is via a browser extension; you can build a browser extension to help redirect all distractions to that note. URLAutoRedirector Chrome Extension will help you turn all your distraction URLs to that note; artists are entirely free.

// Visit https://github.com/Dorcy64/URLAutoRedirector
// Download it and unzip
// Go to src>background.js
// Change notes_url to your desired notes path and save

var notes_url = "https://pomofocus.io/"
// Then go to chrome://extensions and load unpacked select the src destination then wait a few seconds

If you can’t find a way to load unpacked extensions, search for “How to enable Chrome developer mode.” on google.

Conclusions

After setting up Lofi music and URL redirects, comment below if you still get distracted, and I will look for more ways to help you. I must also emphasize that deleting most apps on your phone and using web versions when possible will also work.