Sure, the internet is wonderful. It provides beatboxing flutists and hilarious cat videos and guides on how to trick people into thinking you’re good looking.

But there are times when we just really need to get away from the web in order to be productive.  Log out of Twitter.  Say goodbye to the seven people you’re talking to in gmail chat.  Maybe even (gasp!) deactivate your Facebook.

Sometimes, even all that’s not enough.

For those days when you just really can’t seem to quit the internet, there’s Freedom. This is an ingenious application that blocks your internet for however long you want it to. You simply put in the amount of time that you plan on working for, and voilà. Goodbye internet, hello brilliant work. Hopefully. After that there’s no way to get your internet back before the time is up except by shutting down your computer and restarting it.

Zadie Smith uses it.  So does Dave Eggers.  And a lot of other incredibly successful writers who you might think were born with writerly-discipline-super-powers.  It turns out: they weren’t.  They have Freedom instead.

So there you go. Happy writing!

“They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our FREEDOM!”