How to control your attention?

if you spend a lot of time at the computer

See also

Summary

Some of the general improvements I try to make is to:

Hide information of types I don’t want
Put content behind an action — avoid passively receiving content
Control what notifications I receive

Browser extensions such as adblocks can often be useful for that.

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The following sections and tools are put roughly in order of importance to me.

General

AdBlocks can generally be customized to filter any parts of the web you don’t want to see — not just ads, but also things like suggested content. For example, Paul Christiano uses it to << block "related content," "next stories," the whole youtube sidebar, everything on Medium other than the article, the gmail sidebar, most comment sections, etc.>> (source: Ten small life improvements).

Example: uBlock Origin, AdsRemoved
Also, to remove cookie popups: http://prebake.eu/

I also use Google Doc and bookmarks to note articles that I might want to read, instead of reading them now. When I check back on the list later, I often realize most of the articles shouldn’t be prioritized.

Following are things I haven’t implemented myself, but can see being useful.

You can use the Chrome extension Delayed Gratification with a list of attention grabbing websites so that it will put a 15 seconds countdown before you see the website, hence making a more conscious decision about whether you want to consult the website.

You can use the Chrome extension Tab Wrangler to “[a]utomatically [close] inactive tabs and [make] it easy to get them back”.

Measure

I use a time tracker to track where I spend my attention

Example. RescueTime, Chrome extension.

Facebook

Hide content

depending on your ethical views, consider installing an AdBlock*
- also use the extension to block any parts you don’t like; notably, I suggest blocking suggested content in the right bar (see image)
  - block your news feed
  - Social Fixer for Facebook: remove features you don’t want from Facebook such as comments and likes, and add new features such as hiding posts you’ve already seen and removing certain types of posts

*block only Facebook ads (instead of all ads)

Control notifications

review your notifications settings
turn off other notifications (click on the '...' beside the notification -> select option to reduce or stop this type of notification)
turn off notifications from most of your groups (go to group you receive a -> click Notifications -> click Off)

Other

consider uninstalling the mobile Facebook app, and using it only on desktop, or at least only the webpage (at least turn off mobile notifications)
use https://www.messenger.com/ instead of https://www.facebook.com/ when you want to chat
remove the prediction for https://www.facebook.com/; type https://www.facebook.com/notifications until it becomes the prediction
- Why? the Newsfeed can be distracting; be mindful about what you want to read)
- How? on mobile: when you type ‘f’ in your URL bar, touch and maintain the option, then you’ll have the option to remove this prediction)
- How? on desktop: when the wrong prediction is made, press Shift. + Del.
remove the link from the browser home page
- How? on mobile: touch and maintain the option, then you’ll have the option to remove this prediction)
block some features for some users
- Details: restrict some users, block some users, block messages from some users, block app invites from some users, block event invites from some users, block apps, block pages

Other extensions I’m not using currently:

Toolkit For FB by PlugEx: do a massive automated removal (ex.: friends, comments, likes, etc.); notably, you can unfollow all pages and groups (which is different from unlike / quitting a group; it just stops showing them in your feed) so that you can then follow only the few ones that provide useful content
hide ‘Like’ notifications

Extreme version

Requirement: having a good workflow with emails

Facebook

Unsubscribe to all notifications that you wouldn’t want to receive.
Install Tab Modifier, and change the name of the tab of any Facebook page to “Facebook” to hide notifications from showing up there
Use adblock to blocks all parts of Facebook you don’t like (like suggestions made by Facebook, but also notification counts), as well as the Messenger bar and icon
Select the feature to receive Facebook notifications by email.
Create additional filters on emails, to archive or organize less important notifications
- Example: I created filters to put notifications for reacts in a separate folder that doesn’t go in my Inbox
- Why? Some notifications can’t be turned off on Facebook

Messenger

When receiving a Messenger email, ask the person’s email if you don’t have it, then forward the email to that person with the reply

YouTube

Remove Recommendations Youtube VK Facebook
- Details: option to block: right panel, home page, comments, playlist
- Example: Block YouTube recommended videos with this Chrome extension

Search Engines

This Chrome extension allows to hide a list of websites.

Some websites you might want to block to control your attention are: click-baity websites, websites that require login, websites that blocks users with ad blockers.

I’m hosting a list of websites blocking users with ad blockers. You’re welcome to use it, and contributions are appreciated.

Fun fact: this is essentially an ad blocker blocker blocker. It blocks websites that blocks users with ad blockers.

Emails

I try using only one inbox for all my emails, and maintain an Inbox 0 most of the time. I archive or snooze emails once read.

I use the new Snooze feature if you want to be reminded about an email later.

How? In Gmail you can click on an email, and then on the clock logo, and select a time you want the email to reappear in your inbox. You can also see your snoozed emails by clicking on the Snooze option in the left menu.
Alternatives. Google Keep’s Reminders and Google Calendar’s Reminders can also be used for that purpose.

I have a filter for newsletters (see image), at least if you’re subscribed to a lot of newsletters that you don’t always read and don’t judge important. I keep a Google Doc with a list of newsletters, and which I’ve read that I can consult when I want to catch up with some topics.

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I put events in Google Calendar, which I try to look just before and / or after going to bed. I also use Google Calendar notifications.

I put tasks in a Google Doc (with specific next step and/or bottleneck if the task feel aversive, and group similar tasks to do them in series). I suggest having a reliable way to remind you to consult this list periodically.

Following are things I haven’t implemented myself, but can see being useful.

Quoting Paul Christiano on avoiding email inbox: << I often need to write or look up emails during the day, which would sometimes lead me to read/respond to new emails and switch contexts. I've mostly fixed the problem by leaving gmail open to my list of starred emails rather than my inbox, ad-blocked the "Inbox (X)" notification, and pin gmail so that I can't see the "Inbox (X)" title. >> (source: Ten small life improvements)

Quoting unroll.me on facilitating unsubscribing: << Instantly see a list of all your subscription emails. Unsubscribe easily from whatever you don't want. >> (see: https://unroll.me/a/signup)

boxbe has a few features. Quoting one on reducing unwanted emails << Boxbe empowers you to choose which businesses and contacts can reach your inbox. Anybody who isn’t on your guest list is automatically asked to verify that they are an actual person. This means less spam for you. >> (see: https://www.boxbe.com/courtesy-notice/courtesy-notice-signup.html)

Meetings

Some people are often late to meeting, and make you wait long periods of time. If you dislike that, to reduce this problem, I suggest having people book you in your calendar with an app such as Google Calendar (available with a Google Workspace subscription). You can then join the Google Meet room at the time of the meeting. After X minutes, if the person hasn’t shown up, you can cancel the meeting on Google Calendar, which will give you an option to send a notification with a message — you can say you invite the person to reschedule you given they weren’t available. For a client-contractor relationship, I think it’s generally fair to charge for this time.

I recommend not being reachable during tasks unless in case of emergency, as this increases stress and reduces focus, at least for me. I still like fast communication though, and will generally look at my emails between tasks — so many times per day.