Get back in control of your digital life
Award-winning training and open-source tools to reduce digital distraction and focus on what matters.
Based on our 10+ years of peer-reviewed research at the University of Oxford.
+58%
better ability to focus
1.5+ hours/day
saved time
Trusted by leading universities and organisations to help students and staff reclaim their time and attention
Digital focus tools
Practical tools, not just advice
Our open-source digital focus tools, and large, curated selection of tools supported by research, make it easy and safe to redesign your digital life.
ReDD Focus
Our browser extension and app to eliminate any digital distraction with one click (feeds, Shorts, Reels, ...).
ReDD Block
Our intuitive tool for blocking distracting apps and websites on your computer when you need to focus.
ReDD Do
Our simple todo app that keeps your current task visible while you work. Stay focused on your main quest.
ReDD 2FA
Our simple and secure browser extension for computer-based 2FA. Keep your phone out of sight and out of mind.
The workshop
How it works
The are hundreds of digital focus tools to create the digital life we want. It's overwhelming to find the right ones. We help your students and staff to:
Reflect
Identify digital challenges and goals in work and personal life.
Explore
Discover digital focus tools and strategies tailored to individual needs.
Implement
Set up chosen solutions right away. Leave with a changed phone and a changed mindset.
PRACTICAL SUPPORT
From good intentions to new digital habits
The ReDD Workshop makes it easy and safe to create the digital life you want, thanks to letters from your past self, hands-on support from our experts in our Help! Café, and data-driven insights into your personal journey.
Letters from your past self
Hands-on support
Data-driven insights
RESEARCH-POWERED
Based on our award-winning research & engineering
The ReDD Workshop and its tools are based on our analyses of (so far) 600+ digital focus tools, 54,000+ user reviews, and 250+ interviews, and our decades of experience building open-source software used by 130,000+ people around the world.
The workshop format is based on continuous learning from 300+ workshops at 30+ universities, schools, and organisations, and best practices in behaviour change.
What people say
How to access ReDD
COURSE
Next courses
Our story
In May 2019, Dr Ulrik Lyngs & Maureen Freed gathered 8 students in a dusty seminar room at an Oxford college with an ambitious goal: to help them regain control over their digital lives. What began as Ulrik‘s PhD research into digital distraction was evolving into the ReDD Workshop, a practical intervention to empower anyone to tailor their devices for productivity, wellbeing, and a balanced life.
From those humble beginnings, the ReDD Project grew organically through word-of-mouth and genuine need. We refined our approach through 250+ workshops, and published rigorous research showing that it works. Today, any organisation can train their own facilitators, enabling anyone to redesign digital life to meet their needs.
Workshop in 2024 at Sheffield Hallam University, UK
- 2016Foundational researchUlrik starts his computer science PhD at the University of Oxford with Sir Nigel Shadbolt. His thesis explores how to redesign digital devices to support self-control. It uses psychological theory to analyse digital focus tools.
- 2019From early concept to routine deliveryUlrik & Maureen pilot an early prototype of the ReDD Workshop at Oxford colleges. By late 2021, ReDD is the most popular workshop ever offered at the University of Oxford Counselling Service.
- 2022Exploring new formats & audiencesPilots of large-scale workshops (up to ~80 participants) at Mahidol University in Thailand, workshops for high schools in Denmark, and for university staff in Oxford.
- 2023SepFirst evaluation submitted for publicationInsights from the ReDD workshops are published at the 2024 ACM CHI Conference (thanks to 280 students who consented to share their data for research purposes), winning a Best Paper Honourable Mention award.
- 2023Sep
Towards impact at scale: UK-wide pilotsEPSRC-funding supports an exploration of ReDD's potential for wider impact, with pilots at the universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews, Warwick, Sheffield Hallam, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. - 2024JunOxford University's MPLS Early Career Social Impact AwardThe ReDD Project is one of the winners at the 2024 MPLS Impact Awards, which recognizes outstanding contributions to society from early-career researchers.
- 2024NovFirst facilitator courseIn collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, the launch of a Facilitator Course makes ReDD truly scalable via a train-the-trainer model.
Team
Creators
Maureen Freed
Psychotherapist & mental health consultant
Former Deputy Head of Counselling, University of Oxford
Research assistants
Tiago Costa
First Class BA Experimental Psychology Graduate from University of Oxford
Ena Heide Poulsen
MSci Psychology & Philosophy student, University of Oxford
Advisors & Collaborators
Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, FRS FREng FBCS
Head of the Human Centred Computing group, University of Oxford
Dr Laura Alessandretti
Associate Professor at Section for Cognitive Systems, Technical University of Denmark
