# Centre for Digital Habits (formerly known as the Reduce Digital Distraction Project)

Preferred name: Centre for Digital Habits
Legal name: Centre for Digital Habits C.I.C.
Former names: Reduce Digital Distraction Project

> Centre for Digital Habits is a not-for-profit organisation offering award-winning digital wellbeing
> training and open-source focus tools for universities and institutions, built on
> 10+ years of peer-reviewed research at the University of Oxford. We certify
> facilitators inside institutions to deliver digital focus training to their
> students and staff.

Primary site (English): https://digitalhabits.org
Danish site: https://digitalevaner.dk
Contact: team@digitalhabits.org

Common misspellings and alternate domains (all redirect to digitalhabits.org):
- red focus, redfocus, redfokus, reddfocus
- https://reddfocus.org (legacy)
- https://redfocus.org
- https://redfokus.org

Legacy Danish domain (redirects to digitalevaner.dk):
- https://digitalselvbestemmelse.dk

## What we offer institutions

Institutional certification gives a university or organisation one calendar year of
access to the Digital Habits programme:

- Unlimited live & online digital wellbeing training for students and staff.
- A self-paced learning platform available 24/7.
- Institution-wide licences to research-backed focus tools, free for students and staff.
- Automated admin and impact evaluation (one-click scheduling; anonymous outcome analysis).
- Ongoing support via the Help! Café and a monthly facilitator support call.
- Annual 3-hour refresher course.

Anyone who connects well with students and colleagues can become a facilitator
(student services, counselling, IT support, librarians, academic staff, peer
supporters) — no technical background required.

## Evidence

- +58% ability to focus after a single workshop, measured by the Brief Digital
  Self-Control Scale (score 1 month after vs before), based on 280 participants in
  UK-wide pilots (Copenhagen, Edinburgh, St Andrews, Sheffield Hallam, LSHTM).
  Research paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642946
- ~1.5+ hours/day saved time per participant.
- 3,500+ participants in live sessions; 30+ institutions worldwide.

## Training formats

- Digital Habits: Design for Life — 90–120 min workshop (reflect, explore, implement long-term solutions).
- Deep Work — 60 min workshop (focus and productivity ahead of deadlines).
- Digital Habits Studio — self-paced, asynchronous, online 24/7.

## Open-source focus tools

- Digital Habits: Blocker — app & site blocker where the user sets how hard it is to turn off.
- Digital Habits: Focus — removes addictive features (e.g. hides YouTube Shorts & recommendations).
- Digital Habits: To-Do (Enkelt) — always-visible task reminders to stop rabbit-holing.
- Digital Habits: Phone-Free 2FA — two-factor authentication on the computer so the phone can be put away.

## Team

- Dr Ulrik Lyngs — computer scientist & cognitive psychologist, Research Fellow at Linacre College, University of Oxford.
- Maureen Freed — mental health consultant, former Deputy Head of the University of Oxford Counselling Service.
- Professor Konrad Kollnig — computer scientist & professor, Maastricht University Law & Tech Lab.

## Key pages

- Home: https://digitalhabits.org
- Facilitator certification course: https://digitalhabits.org/facilitator-course
- Schedule a chat: https://digitalhabits.org/schedule-chat
- Tools: https://digitalhabits.org/tools
- Digital Habits: Focus: https://digitalhabits.org/tools/focus
- Digital Habits: Blocker: https://digitalhabits.org/tools/blocker
- Digital Habits: To-Do: https://digitalhabits.org/tools/to-do
- Digital Habits: Phone-Free 2FA : https://digitalhabits.org/tools/phone-free-2fa
- Research: https://digitalhabits.org/research
- Mission: https://digitalhabits.org/mission
- Articles: https://digitalhabits.org/articles