Tools for compartmentalization

Last week, I wrote about the importance of compartmentalization in today's world of enlightened consumption - with the amount of content that is out there, it is essential to develop good habits that enable you to stay current without sacrificing productivity and accuracy.

There are several tools you can use to help yourself do this. First, you can just impose self-discipline - limiting your email-checking to certain intervals, switching off your personal cellphone at work, etc. This is simple and can be enough, but it also is subject to problems when you choose to ignore your own rules.

Another way is to use a calendar client to organize your day. Don't just put meetings in the calendar; use it to set aside time for personal or extracurricular events or tasks as well. This will enable you at a glance to maximize time for working while being aware of when best to do everything else.

And then, of course, there are tools available online to help you compartmentalize. One of these is Mac Freedom. (As the name indicates, this program is only available for Macintosh, although the website insists a Windows version is in the works.) The concept is simple: enter an amount of time, and Mac Freedom will disconnect you from the Internet for that duration of time. There's no way to get around the wall except for restarting, an option assumed to be onerous enough that few people will resort to it. And best of all, there's a freeware version of the program available, meaning greater productivity doesn't have to cost you a dime.

Of course, this option may not be great for many reasons: you need access to the Internet for your work; you rarely need to concentrate for hours at a time; you're just too worried that you may have to restart when an Internet "emergency" arises. At the end of the day, the freedom these tools provide is as much mental as literal.