Ghoster Gets You to Focus, CookTimer Gets You to Remember
When you think of productivity, you should not always assume this refers only to the workplace; even in your day to day computer use and online browsing, you should learn to focus and be efficient. If things like Firefox keyboard shortcuts, Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts and Windows 7 productivity enhancing features are not enough, then you should consider using Ghoster.
Ghoster, which will only work on Windows-based machines, is a software application that will get you to focus on the active window alone. It is very easy to get distracted by other applications, so Ghoster takes care of this by darkening everything on your desktop, apart from the active Window. What excuse will you come up with when Ghoster will provide you with a distraction-free environment?
The upside is that Ghoster comes free-of-cost and is open source. Since it does not require an installation (just download the .exe file and double click the icon to run the application), you can always store it onto a portable device and take it with you. The downside is that there are no hotkeys to automatically launch the application.
If you find that Ghoster did not darken the screen enough and you are still distracted by background running applications, just right click on the Ghoster icon from the system tray and click Settings. You will notice a handful of settings you can play with, including one that dictates how translucent the ghosting effect is.
Since Ghoster will also hide the taskbar (or because it gets you to focus so much on the task at hand) chances are that you will forget you have to pick up your girlfriend in 15 minutes, or take the laundry out of the washing machine. With CookTimer, freeware designed to work only in Windows-based systems, you can set up an alarm and prevent such things from occurring. For example, if you need to leave the computer in 15 minutes, just fire up CookTimer and set it to issue an alarm in 15 minutes. When that user specified amount of time is up, the software will alert you by means of an audio alarm.
If you would like to get Ghoster, a download location is available here.
If you would like to get CookTimer, a download location is available here.
Ghoster, which will only work on Windows-based machines, is a software application that will get you to focus on the active window alone. It is very easy to get distracted by other applications, so Ghoster takes care of this by darkening everything on your desktop, apart from the active Window. What excuse will you come up with when Ghoster will provide you with a distraction-free environment?
The upside is that Ghoster comes free-of-cost and is open source. Since it does not require an installation (just download the .exe file and double click the icon to run the application), you can always store it onto a portable device and take it with you. The downside is that there are no hotkeys to automatically launch the application.
If you find that Ghoster did not darken the screen enough and you are still distracted by background running applications, just right click on the Ghoster icon from the system tray and click Settings. You will notice a handful of settings you can play with, including one that dictates how translucent the ghosting effect is.
Since Ghoster will also hide the taskbar (or because it gets you to focus so much on the task at hand) chances are that you will forget you have to pick up your girlfriend in 15 minutes, or take the laundry out of the washing machine. With CookTimer, freeware designed to work only in Windows-based systems, you can set up an alarm and prevent such things from occurring. For example, if you need to leave the computer in 15 minutes, just fire up CookTimer and set it to issue an alarm in 15 minutes. When that user specified amount of time is up, the software will alert you by means of an audio alarm.
If you would like to get Ghoster, a download location is available here.
If you would like to get CookTimer, a download location is available here.
