If you don’t handle your time well, it can take all the hours of your day to work from home before you know it.

Besides, even after all that, monitoring all the tasks you’ve managed to get done, and the things you still need to do, could become incredibly difficult for you.

So, if you need any support to work harder, quicker, and more effectively, you may want to consider these three programs that are designed to help you establish a discipline of work, and in return also leave you with time to spend with your family, free of guilt.

Forest

If you find yourself wasting time reviewing WhatsApp messages or TikTok videos and reaching for your camera, try Forest.

Not only does this software help you reduce the use of smartphones while you’re working, it will also help you incorporate the Pomodoro technique into your everyday scheme.

Francesco Cirillo — an entrepreneur and an author — invented this technique in the early 1990s, which he named after the tomato-shaped timer he used to track his own student research.

Here’s how it works: Pick a task you want to complete; set an alarm for 25 minutes and work tirelessly on that task until the alarm rings.
Then take a brief five-minute break for the next 25 minutes before you get back to the job at hand. Take a longer 25 minute break after every four 25-minute work sessions before you start working again.

You start with a virtual seed which you plant in Forest. And this seed keeps growing into a tree for as long as you can resist the temptation to reach out for your camera. If you leave the app to do something else on your computer, the tree will willow away. The app sounds an alert after 25 minutes, letting you take your break.

Forest is free for Android users, but is available on the iOS only as a paid version. Choose a paid account on Android and you’ll get the same premium features as the iOS version: Software developers will plant real trees for your accomplishments in Forest, you’ll be able to white-list work-related applications on your computer, and you’ll even get accurate statistics on what’s your most successful hour, as well as the most successful one.

StayFocusd

Sounds familiar to this? You sit down to work, and three hours later, the next thing you know. In the meantime, you’ve changed your Facebook profile, scrolled through your Twitter feed, watched a bunch of YouTube “reaction” videos and even googled your college crush.

Now, to get your job finished on time, you’ll need to remove all kinds of internet distractions, and that’s where Stayfocusd comes in This browser extension for Google Chrome lets you focus on work by minimizing the amount of time you can spend on favorite websites.

Build a list of non-work websites you are addicted to and key in the amount of time you are permitted to “waste” on them. After the allotted time is used, StayFocusd will block certain websites for the remainder of the day.

This “tough-love” tool is highly configurable: you can block entire sites, specific subdomains, routes, pages, even material in the pages (videos, games, images, shapes, etc.).

And the StayFocusd extension can’t even cheat by disabling it. You can not delete a link from its website

When your maximum time for the day has been reached, “Blocked Pages” list, and you can only do it the next day.

Those who use a Firefox browser can use the extension LeechBlock NG which does the same job.

Restyaboard

Kanban is the Japanese word for signboard, and a Kanban-style
work-management tool is one that uses a dashboard-like interface to
give you a columnar overview of the tasks—whether daily, weekly,
monthly, or even project-wise—that need to be done.

Now, there are quite a few Kanban-style apps and websites that will
help you manage your time, but Restyaboard is still one of the best.

Start a free account on Restya.com for access to a very flexible
interface that will help you plan your week, and even micromanage your
day.

You can, for instance, create a Kanban board that’s broken up into
daily time blocks such as 9 am–11 am, 11.15 am–1 pm, 2 pm–3.30 pm, 4
pm–5.30 pm… and accordingly create tasks for each of those blocks.

Restyaboard’s drag-and-drop interface is user friendly, but you can
head to its YouTube channel for tutorials and tips on how to leverage
on its multiple features effectively. For every job you list on your
dashboard, you can add a description, checklists, due date, comments,
and even add collaborators.

Having your day planned for you, will allow you to be more efficient
and even give you a sense of purpose for each day.