Mac & Windows Apps to Help You Focus When Writing

When you sit down to start a writing session, it’s easy to get distracted. Your inner procrastinator often looks for things to do other than writing. This may involve cleaning the house, making food, or doing other chores. You may start visiting websites on your computer, scrolling through TikTok on your phone, or getting lost in video games.

There’s a time for everything, and when it’s time to write, you want to remove as many distractions as possible. Scrivener’s Composition Mode helps you by blocking out everything on your computer screen other than the text you’re working on.

But you may need additional support so you can’t look at your email or Instagram when you’re trying to hit your daily word count.

Time your writing sessions

One way to improve your focus is to use a timer and work with something like the Pomodoro Technique. With this productivity technique, you set a timer for 25 minutes of work. When it’s over, you set the timer for a 5-minute break. Every four sessions, you take a longer break of 20 minutes. During these sessions, you commit to just writing, not scrolling on your phone.

The creator of the technique originally used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer (pomodoro is tomato in Italian), but you can use a timer on your phone, smartwatch, or computer, or use this online Pomodoro timer.

Of course, you don’t have to use these precise times. I work for 30 minutes and then take a 10-minute break. This gives me enough time to make a cup of tea, get a snack, or start thinking about what I’m going to make for lunch or dinner. You can adapt this technique for the duration that works for you.

Turn off notifications

Those little pings when you get messages or emails can pull you away from your writing and harm your productivity. You should set all your devices to their “Do Not Disturb” setting. You can do this on Apple devices, on Windows and on Android devices. You may still want to receive urgent notifications, such as from your children, spouse, or partner. All these platforms allow you to specify people who get through the do-not-disturb barrier.

Turn off wi-fi

One of the easiest ways to keep yourself from doing anything on the internet while writing is to turn off wi-fi. You may want to do this on your computer, tablet, and phone to make sure that you’re not tempted by a different device. The disadvantage is that you may want to do some research while writing. And that’s the slippery slope: you go to your web browser to research something, you click a few links, and before you know it, half an hour has passed as you’ve gone down a rabbit hole.

If you’re working on your first draft, it’s a good idea to not stop to research things. In journalism, writers use the abbreviation TK to indicate something that is “to come,” or to be verified later. As you write, you can put TK every time you reach a point where you need to check something, such as a photo of a specific locale that you want to describe, the date a certain event took place, or an unresolved description or beat in your story. You can then have research sessions where you go through your manuscript, search for TK, and spend time resolving all these open questions.

macOS and Windows built-in parental controls

Both Mac and Windows operating systems include parental controls. These are designed so you can set up a computer for a child, giving them access to apps and websites they need and blocking everything else.

You can use these features for yourself; just create a profile, choose which apps and websites you want to block or allow, and turn the feature on. One advantage of these parental controls is that you can turn them on or off at will or set schedules.

Learn How to Set Up Windows Parental Controls and how to use Screen Time on Mac.

Block specific apps and websites

For many people, turning off Wi-Fi means that you may not be able to listen to music from your favorite streaming service, and it may block urgent notifications that you need to receive.

There are a number of third-party apps that you can install on your computer that offer a range of blocking features, including schedules and time limits, and that allow you to selectively block or allow apps.

Freedom is designed for writers who want to limit their internet access to specific websites and apps. It is available for Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and ChromeOS. You can set time limits, take breaks in your blocking, and tailor your blocking to the apps and websites that you absolutely want to avoid. It is available as a monthly subscription or a one-time purchase.

Cold Turkey is available for Mac and Windows, and lets you block specific domains or all websites, block applications – including games on your computer that can eat away at your productivity; I’m talking about you, Minesweeper – and set schedules. It even has a built-in Pomodoro timer. It’s available as a one-time purchase.

The combination of Scrivener’s tools to minimize distractions, the features built into macOS and Windows, and third-party apps allows you to customize your focus whenever you want. Try these out and see if you spend more time writing and less time browsing the internet.