Alas, I am not in Cuba. but at home in Tipperary on a cold October evening. When I close my eyes however, I can imagine that I am sitting sunning my toes on a Cuban beach. It’s all thanks to a new Chrome Extension that I came upon while  browsing ProductHunt.com, which lists new apps, products, websites and all things tech related.  The Extension is called Rofocus and has a number of ambient sounds that you can play, from coffee shop background noise to wind blowing and of course one called Cuban Beach. You can see what it looks like in the image below.

A great many people find it easier to work with ambient noise in the background. Sometimes I like complete silence, sometimes I like to have music playing in the background, sometimes I like ambient noise. It all depends on what I’m doing, how much I need to focus and how much creativity is required.

It’s not just the opinions of some people that say they work better with ambient noise. There is science backing it up. According to the article “Is Noise Always Bad? Exploring the Effects of Ambient Noise On Creative Cognition” published in the Journal of Consumer Research, a moderate level of ambient or background noise induces distraction which encourages individuals to think at a higher, abstract level, and consequently exhibit higher creativity   (Mehta, Ravi, et al. “Is Noise Always Bad? Exploring the Effects of Ambient Noise On Creative Cognition.” Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 39, no. 4, 2012, pp. 784–799. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/665048).

Rofocus also includes a timer utilising the Pomodoro technique which breaks work down into 25 minute intervals. I’m all for using tools that increase productivity and creativity. Anything that offers any potential improvement is always worth looking at. I find Rofocus does all that I need, is easy to install and easy to use.

One of the great things about Rofocus is that it’s completely free to install. Of course you will need to be using the Google Chrome Browser. So if you are using Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or any other browser to surf the net, this may not be of much use to you. If you are using a different browser and want to try Chrome just click here to visit the Chrome download page.

If you are using Chrome but have never installed an extension before, the video below shows you how to install and manage extensions. Extensions are small programs that you can add to your browser to do different jobs. Click here to visit the Chrome Extensions page

If you do install it or have your own suggestions to improve productivity and/or creativity please leave a comment below or chat to me on Twitter @derryo

Simply put, it converts websites into PDFs making it handy for reading offline, putting on an e-book reader or just filing away. Updated versions of Adobe reader have a ‘Read out loud’ function (click on view at top of the PDF, it’s located at the bottom (for my non tech readers)) This means that the blind and visually impaired can listen to websites, blogs etc. being read out without having to install software to do so. I think that’s pretty good.

Best of all PDFmyURL is free and extremely easy to use. So off you go now and convert this blog (not the whole thing, just whatever posts appear on the main page) into a pdf and read at your leisure.

Update: It worked! Note though that the message/signature you have on your device when you send an email also appears (ie. Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld) So if you have it set as your email signature, with contact details etc. this is what will show. I’m also putting in the links via the web as I don’t know how to do it on the phone.

Even as I type I feel the urge, the burning desire, the draw, the attraction, the pull of what I must avoid until I finish this. Surely one little Tweet wouldn’t do any harm.

But I know as soon as I open the door into Twitterland, that will be it. I will go off reading tweets, writing tweets, opening links, reading blog posts and thinking to myself ‘I should post something new’. It’s a kind of a guilt thing, tinged with the desire to do what I actually really like doing. Writing.

Deep down I know that it’s only a matter of getting into the habit of writing on a regular basis and disciplining myself to do so.

Anyhow, I’m waffling now, what I intended to do, was write a little post on some of the ‘finds’ I’ve had over the last few days. I use the word ‘finds’ to describe stuff that has typically been tweeted about or linked to from another blog or site.

As I make my living from publishing magazines, I was delighted recently to discover Issuu.com (via Le Craic who designed a book about The 2008 Blog Awards winners). Issuu.com is a site that allows you to upload various types of publications for onscreen viewing. No having to download pdfs or software to view a publication. You can see my latest magazine issues here and here

Last night I was preparing my first ever powerpoint presentation, so I had a little bit of learning to do. I happened to Tweet what I was up to and Darragh sent me a link to prezi.com. It’s a really cool tool for doing presentations. I have nothing to show you using that, as I was getting to grips with powerpoint and didn’t want to have to learn something else new at the same time.

Many people reading this will possibly already be aware of the aforementioned, but some will not. For anyone who thinks that ‘that’s last year’s news’ bear in mind that there will always be someone new coming along eager to learn and never assume that they probably already know about such and such a tool or website. This is more a note to myself as I am ready to admit that I am very often guilty of apologising to someone by saying ‘I thought you knew about that’.

Ok, enough, I’m off to Twitterland.