Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?

I think every computer should have a paper and pencil mode. Where it reduces all its functionality instantly to that of a piece of paper and pen (well maybe a keyboard instead of a pen.) Once it that mode it should stay there for at least 30mins or x mins without a way to force it out of that mode (well at least not without a serious amount of work.)

What you need is Self Control: https://selfcontrolapp.com/

There's a lot of things to pick at desktop Linux for, but maintenance is not one of them, especially not on a mainstream fixed-release distro like Ubuntu. Once you're set up, you're good to go, and you have full control over what you want to change.

I use hammerspoon (https://www.hammerspoon.org/) and have a section in my ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua that puts things into "focus mode" where it centers my current focussed window and minimizes everything else. If I used notifications (I turn them all off all the time) I would put it into do not disurb mode during this time also. Here's a snippet that does this:

    focusTimer = nil        -- A timer for when we are in "Focus Mode"
    function focusModeOff()
        all = hs.window.allWindows()
        for _, w in pairs(all) do
            if(w:isMinimized()) then
                w:unminimize()
            end
        end
        applyStandardLayout()
        if(focusTimer ~= nil) then
            focusTimer:stop()
            focusTimer = nil
        end
    end

    -- Focus mode
    function focusMode()
        if(focusTimer == nil) then
            hs.alert("Setting focus for 25mins.")
            local focused = hs.window.focusedWindow()
            if(focused ~= nil) then
                focused:centerOnScreen()
            end
            all = hs.window.allWindows()
            for _, w in pairs(all) do
                if(focused ~= nil and w:id() ~= focused:id()) then
                    w:minimize()
                end
            end
            focusTimer = hs.timer.doAfter(25 * 60, function()
                focusModeOff()
                hs.alert("Take a 5min break. Record what you just did.")
                --TODO: Make a pomodoro recording thing
            end)
        else
            local remaining = focusTimer:nextTrigger()
            local remainingSec = math.floor(remaining % 60)
            local remainingMin = math.floor(remaining / 60)
            hs.alert("Focus timer expires in " .. remainingMin .. "m " .. remainingSec .. "s.")
        end
    end

    --focus mode
    hs.hotkey.bind({"cmd", "ctrl"}, "Return", focusMode)

A lot of solutions here involves diving deeper into tech. I don’t think this is a good idea since you will start going down a similar rabbit hole.

This is a focus problem. Everyone have a different way of solving this. For me, the best way is to write what I want to achieve on paper and start doing it right away. I don’t do anything else until I cross out all of them.