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Productivity Blocker

productivityblocker.com

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Re: Productivity Blocker

#37
post #7

Something like this might actually be useful for the all-too-common productive procrastination breaks. Stuck on a hard problem? Better clean my desk. Waiting for a build? Better clean my files. Lacking momentum? Better check LinkedIn (it’s professional so it’s okay). I wonder which type of “break” kills more productivity, “fun” distraction or “productive” distraction. Anyone else?

Probably "productive" distractions, since you can do them a lot more before feeling bad and going back to work. Especially if you can silently get into the "fun" territory. I've actually had this with HN in the last days; I've ditched Reddit for HN because it contained a lot more worthwile content and valuable discussions [0], but with the Twitter shitshow I've come to enjoy a lot of snarky, unproductive discussions…

Yeah, HN is such a double edged sword. Great technical discussions as well as time sucking passive aggressive discussions about "divisive social issues", which I cannot help but click.

Wrote this script today, that just stops me seeing submissions from sites I know won't have good technical discussions. Might be useful for others.

    const boringDomains = ["twitter.com", "newyorker.com", "nytimes.com"]

    Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(".titleline > a"))
        .filter(elem => boringDomains.some(domain => elem.href.includes(domain)))
        .map(elem => elem.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement)
        .flatMap(elem => [
            elem,
            elem.nextElementSibling,
            elem.nextElementSibling.nextElementSibling]
        )
        .forEach(elem => elem.remove())

Re: Productivity Blocker

#38
post #4

I've been using Freedom for this for some time. I would recommend using these tools. When you site down and want to get something done you just block out a few hours where you can't access the sites that distract you. It is really good for focus. I thought I could do this with will power alone but these sorts of tools really do help.

I think you missed the point.
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