When I was a child there weren't many options for entertainment after school or on weekends: I could walk to a friend's house. I could watch TV on our 13 fuzzy channels. Or I could read. And so I read, and read, and read -- hours and even whole days would pass with no interruptions. I didn't have any choice but to concentrate.

Why do I look at my phone? I don't know, for many reasons. To see exactly where my online order is on the delivery trail. To find out the name of that one actress who played the chef in that one movie with that one guy from that other movie. To see if he's still the US president. Because I haven't looked at it in the past 22 minutes.

How's your neck feel right now? Not great? Probably because you keep looking down at your phone, a move that will give you more than a tension headache if you keep it up. Ditch the bad habit in 2018, and leave your pocket computer in your pocket instead of pulling it out every 30 seconds. We've got a few ways to help you through the tough time of ignoring your emails and texts for the sake of your sanity.

macOS: Freedom, the cross-platform app that blocks distracting websites, just got even more powerful. Now on macOS, and soon on Windows, Freedom can block desktop apps.

Android: Setting up a new Android phone means you'll be spending more than a few minutes in the Google Play Store, downloading apps. It also means you'll be dealing with more than a few annoying pop-ups in the form of notifications from all these new apps. It's easy to deal with the overwhelming amount of vibrations, dings and dots if you know what to turn on (and off).

The human body is marvellous. If you know how to harness its built-in superpowers, you can do so much more than you are right now. Use these small tricks to become a more efficient worker.

iOS/Android: Choosing how to use spare moments on your phone can feel like dieting. You might find yourself choosing Twitter or Facebook every time, mad at yourself for never cracking open Kindle or Instapaper. Fighting this habit takes a whole arsenal, so here's one more weapon: Turn off all your "bad" notification badges and turn on some good ones.

I treat my earbuds rough, so every year or two they break. And every time, as I walk around the world without a constant soundtrack of Spotify and podcasts, I think to myself, "I really ought to do this more often." And then I have ideas.

The most frustrating thing about a phone addiction is that unlike actual substance abuse, the solution is not to stop using it completely. Instead, we have to find ways to use this technology responsibly, fighting apps overtly designed to steal our time.

Email can be a distracting time sink for any office worker. But sometimes, it's best to get it out of the way. Over at Harvard Business Review, contributor Dorie Clark makes the case for checking email first thing in the morning.

The news media is troubling, is it not? And on occasion it veers from being merely troubling to flat-out horrifying. I have found that the news, and in fact any violent or disturbing media at all, can be simply unbearable for many people.

Chrome: If you need a little help staying away from distracting web sites when you need to focus, or you want to give your sanity a break and block specific topics, SiteCop can help. Once installed, tell it when and how long to keep you focused, give it web addresses or keywords to block and it will do the rest.

iOS: Self Control made a name for itself for being serious about blocking out distractions -- you couldn't just turn the app off, or reboot your computer, to make it go away. Now, an app inspired by the original has landed on the iPhone, offering a similar no-nonsense approach to keeping you focused on what's important.

We feel that time is precious, and we shouldn't waste it. We often try and fill the void with carefully-planned tasks. But turning down the volume on life can be extremely beneficial. We fight against boredom, distraction and procrastination all the time, but that doesn't mean you should get rid of them completely.

During sex, do you frequently find yourself thinking about grocery shopping, or getting distracted by the cobwebs on the ceiling? It's frustratingly hard to turn our brains off when we're being intimate, even though we all know how much better sex can be when we're mentally present. These tricks can help.

Chrome: There are a ton of apps to block distractions online, but most of them only do that one thing. The Chrome extension Focus goes one step beyond, giving you a to-do list and a schedule to get things done as well.

Dear Lifehacker, I have a habit of coming up with an idea, and then not actually following through with it. I have a specific project that I have really wanted to do for a long time, but I have never actually made an effort to make it happen. I think my main reasons for not doing this are fear of failure and a general sense of being easily distracted. What are some good ways to force yourself to see a project through to completion, despite fear of failure? Thanks, Long Deferred

When your motivation is low, it's hard to get started on your work. And nothing can sap your motivation quite like feeling you're out of control of your work. To counter that feeling, give yourself ways to feel in control.

After years of working from coffee shops and couches, there's one thing I'm certain of: working remotely is hard. Incredibly hard. On paper, it sounds all rainbows and unicorns -- you get to choose your own hours, you don't need to deal with a boss looming over your shoulder, and you can even work in your pajamas.