We get it. There are a lot of online distractions these days, from YouTube to TikTok to instant messages; it’s all too much. You may even have games and other entertaining software on your devices, tempting when you need to do actual work. Well, this time applies the solution to fight fire with fire, because a lot of productivity-related open-source and free software tools are also around.

Putting the phone down or closing that game isn’t always easy, but you can always get some help installed. We’ll explore some useful tools for this matter ahead. If you find them useful, you can visit __Kivach__to send crypto donations to their developers on GitHub.

Cat Gatekeeper & Pawzy

If you’ve ever lived with a cat, you’ll likely know that most of them love to sit on your PC or laptop. While you’re using it. Now, that’s an obligatory break, but the software Cat Gatekeeper recreated these cases to allow work. Instead of pausing all activity, it has some key websites where a chubby, blond cat will take over your screen if you've been there too long.

Created by the independent developer ‘Zokuzoku’ and released in 2026, this light browser extension includes the most popular social media: X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Reddit, Threads, BlueSky, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You decide the timing before the cat appears, and also the duration of the break. It’s private and ad-free, by the way.

Inspired by Cat Gatekeeper, we also have Pawzy, released by Shivam Yadav. This app is a more aggressive blocker that works offline and encompasses all websites and the whole operating system. You can choose between a cat, a Shiba Inu dog, a capybara, or a monkey. The break is almost mandatory. If you want to donate to either of these projects, you can find them on Kivach, too.

Curbox & QuestPhone

“You scrolled 416 reels. You had an attention span of 5.59 seconds/video.” That sentence is a wake-up call, isn’t it? Well, that’s part of what Curbox (formerly DigiPaws) can do on Android devices. Created by ‘Nethical’ in 2024, Curbox can measure your time in all allowed apps, block them, turn them black and white, offer a focus mode, and more on its way.

The app can also block comments, explicit content, reels, and keywords —it redirects to different sites when a keyword is found. An optional uninstall feature and its custom warning screens will ensure you can't cheat. However, it also includes "times" when cheating is allowed, or you can even enable it only as an activity tracker.

QuestPhone was once part of DigiPaws, but now it’s an independent app by itself. This one gamifies productivity not only by blocking apps, but also by giving streaks, collectibles, rewards, and different levels. As they describe it, “almost any real-life habit can be converted into a quest.” Both apps are privacy-friendly, and they’re still in development. If you want to donate, the author has a Patreon account. For crypto donations, visit Kivach!

Activity Watch

Released in 2016 by Erik and Johan Bjäreholt, this is an activity tracker more focused on stats than blocks. If you want to know with figures and pie charts what you’ve been up to all week, not only on your phone, but also on Windows, macOS, and Linux, this one is for you. And it also works on Chrome and Firefox, so a lot is covered.

Activity Watch will do exactly what its name suggests, and organize all data in neat categories like Top Window Titles, Top Apps, and Top Browsers, all of it including the specific names and periods you’ve spent on them. A colorful timeline is also available for you to check everything chronologically. You’ll be in control of all this private data, which never reaches any cloud, only your own device.

Contributions are welcome and encouraged on GitHub. The developers are planning to work on this software long-term, but they’re volunteers. So, any donation is well-received to cover infrastructure and server costs. They accept tips from several platforms, including cryptocurrency. You can donate to this project on Kivach, as well.

Super Productivity

Maybe a to-do list is what you need to complete all your tasks. Super Productivity offers a comprehensive app in this field, available for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS. Created by Johannes Millan in 2017, this software can track your time, but also help you organize it and focus on what you really need to do.

Its main features include tasks and subtasks, organization by tags and categories, customizable boards, focus mode, Pomodoro timer, break reminders, and personal stats. It can be easily integrated with apps like calendars, GitHub, Jira, GitLab, Trello, Dropbox, and ClickUp. Besides, not only text is allowed: you can attach files and notes to every task. As in the other tools on this list, your data is private, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mvMXWLsL-8

There are several ways you may contribute to this project, if you want to. The more obvious one is coding on GitHub, but you can also translate to your language, provide support to other users, and give suggestions for new features. Of course, you can also send a monetary contribution. This project is available on Kivach for crypto donations.

ProcrastiScan

ProcrastiScan appeared in 2024 as a project by Marc Puikys, and it offers a different approach. Instead of focusing on apps, it goes for keywords and context. A focus score is dynamically calculated according to the relevance of the content you’re interacting with. If that score is over 0.5, the content is considered relevant for the prompt you configured, while lower scores are considered a distraction. Then, the software intervenes on your screen.

So, instead of simple blocks, ProcrastiScan checks semantic similarity, meaning it tries to understand context and topics. Someone researching anthropology could browse Wikipedia without trouble, while sports news or trending videos might lower the focus score. The extension can block tabs, save distractions for later, color the browser toolbar red, or show productivity dashboards. An experimental chatbot intervention also exists through a local LLM connection.

Privacy handling stays local and offline, with no data collection. This tool runs on Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Opera. As with any other open-source software on GitHub, you can send your own code contributions. If you wish to tip the developer, you can use Kivach.

Donate and Receive Donations!

Donating on Kivach is a swift, easy process. You’ll only need the repository name or link, a crypto wallet with some funds (an Obyte wallet works), and a couple of minutes. No need for registrations, and no need for the developers to set up anything beforehand. You can literally send the most popular cryptocurrencies to any repo available on GitHub by just pasting a name or link and clicking ‘Donate.’

On the other hand, after sending the funds, you’ll need to tell recipients about it, because they’ll need a quick verification (GitHub attestation) to claim them. This attestation is done via chatbot on the Obyte wallet; it’s free, and it doesn’t require much. Once claimed, developers can choose between keeping the whole amount or sharing it with other repos automatically —which is called a “cascading donation,” a native feature of Kivach.

Are you curious about other free tools? Check our previous episodes!\

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Featured Vector Image by Imam Fathoni / Vecteezy