Get-shit-done - Easy way to stop distractions • Hacker News Board

Re: Get-shit-done - Easy way to stop distractions

#11

Post by rodh257 » Wed, May 04, 2011, 2:21 PM UTC

pfarrell wrote: post #7

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/leechblock/ does windows of access, allows for x minutes, has grouping. Course, it's FF only where hosts file gets your whole connection.

StayFocusd for Chrome Users - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/laankejkbhbdhmipfm...

latest version has a neat feature which tracks links from blocked pages. Ie if I give myself 15 mins of HN a day, but end up wasting 2 hours because I only spend 10 secs on HN opening up tabs to read, it now tracks that. Any links you click from HN will count towards your time limit.

Re: Get-shit-done - Easy way to stop distractions

#12

Post by ericmoritz » Wed, May 04, 2011, 2:21 PM UTC

I used StayFocusd for a day or two and realized I was a lost cause when I found myself opening its sqlite database in my Chrome profile to add time to the clock.

Re: Get-shit-done - Easy way to stop distractions

#13

Post by Zachhack » Wed, May 04, 2011, 2:25 PM UTC

pfarrell wrote: post #7

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/leechblock/ does windows of access, allows for x minutes, has grouping. Course, it's FF only where hosts file gets your whole connection.

leechblock has helped my compulsive reddit habit :/

Re: Get-shit-done - Easy way to stop distractions

#14

Post by skid » Wed, May 04, 2011, 2:34 PM UTC

Isn't the point of this approach to be _difficult_ to switch back and forth? Next thing you know there will be a chrome extension that swaps your hosts file and you will be separated from procrastination by a single click.

Re: Get-shit-done - Easy way to stop distractions

#15

Post by JacobAldridge » Wed, May 04, 2011, 2:40 PM UTC

Nowhere near as broad-ranging, but I'll make the note for HN users not aware of it - if HN is your sole (main?) distraction, you can use the noprocrast feature on your user page. Change to Yes, add a max time you allow yourself to visit HN and then the min time you want to be forced to be away.

As I say, nowhere near as broadly applicable or useful as the OP, but worth noting especially if (like me) HN is your distraction of choice and you have minimal technical skills.

Re: Get-shit-done - Easy way to stop distractions

#16

Post by jgv » Wed, May 04, 2011, 3:00 PM UTC

thurn wrote: post #8

For Mac users, SelfControl is a GUI approach to this idea: http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/

Also if anyone wants to hack on it, SelfControl is on Github: https://github.com/slambert/selfcontrol

Re: Get-shit-done - Easy way to stop distractions

#17

Post by keefe » Wed, May 04, 2011, 3:08 PM UTC

treating the symptoms rather than the disease is only a good choice for short term or for incurable diseases

Re: Get-shit-done - Easy way to stop distractions

#18

Post by keefe » Wed, May 04, 2011, 3:09 PM UTC

JacobAldridge wrote: post #15

Nowhere near as broad-ranging, but I'll make the note for HN users not aware of it - if HN is your sole (main?) distraction, you can use the noprocrast feature on your user page. Change to Yes, add a max time you allow yourself to visit HN and then the min time you want to be forced to be away. As I say, nowhere near as broadly applicable or useful as the OP, but worth noting especially if (like me) HN is your distra…

>if (like me) HN is your distraction of choice and you have minimal technical skills.

this is a small and interesting portion of mindspace

Re: Get-shit-done - Easy way to stop distractions

#19

Post by rbxbx » Wed, May 04, 2011, 3:15 PM UTC

Sorry to be the guy decrying PHP, but the only arguments I've found in it's favor are it's ubiquity and being sometimes "the right tool for the job" if you're quickly hacking together a dynamic webpage.

Surely a simple cli app isn't the right job for this tool.

Now, all that said, it _does_ work, and blahblahblah.

Re: Get-shit-done - Easy way to stop distractions

#20

Post by calloc » Wed, May 04, 2011, 3:18 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #4

Does it have a timer to keep me from modifying it every 2 minutes?

Use FreeBSD, set the kernlevel to something above the minimum, and add the flags to the file so it can't be changed, then until you reboot you won't be able to modify the hosts file =)