Use these tools to block social media apps from yourself and save time

RescueTime is an award-winning tool that tracks the amount of time you spend on websites

The use of social media platforms has hit the roof in recent times. Only five per cent of adults in the United States were using a social media platform in 2005, that number is now around 70 per cent, reveals a study.

While social media keeps us informed and entertained, it has a robust impact on our lives and psychological well-being. Here are four tools that can help you become more productive by limiting the time you spend on social media sites.

Freedom

Freedom is a social media blocker app that allows users to decide which websites and apps they want to limit on their mobile, tablets and desktop devices. Users can also block the internet.

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The app is helping its one million users to focus and increase productivity.

Freedom is free to use for the first seven sessions after which you will be required to pay a subscription fee. The app is compatible with Windows, Android, and Mac/iOS.

LeechBlock

LeechBlock blocks time-wasting sites that prevent you from having a productive working day. Users specify which sites to block and when as well as for how long. The Firefox add-on can also be used to stop users being constantly plagued by ads or messages.

LeechBlock also allows you to set a password to access prohibited sites to help "slow you down" in moments of weakness. If you can't help yourself, then LeechBlock will track the amount of time you've spent on blocked sites.

Adding sites to your 'blocked' list is easy - just go the the LeechBlock extension in your add-on manager and click 'Options' to add a site.

StayFocusd

StayFocusd is a free browser extension that increases productivity by limiting the amount of time we spend on certain websites.

This helps users stay focused on their goals and also prevents them from getting distracted.

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Once the set time has been used up, the sites you have blocked will be inaccessible for the rest of the day. If you fear that you might cave in simply set the "Nuclear option" which is designed to prevent users from undoing the set restrictions.

The browser extension is only available for Google Chrome, hence it won't work on other web browsers like Firefox or Microsoft Edge.

RescueTime

RescueTime is an award-winning tool that tracks the amount of time you spend on various websites.

The app has over two million users and is available to use on Windows, Android, Mac/iOS, Chrome, and Linux devices. Its browser plug-in can be used on Chrome, Firefox, and Brave.

You can sync as many devices as you like.

RescueTime is free for the first 14 days of use, after which you will need to pay a subscription fee to continue using it.