Keep Me Out, interesting anti-procrastination device | Hacker News Reader

Keep Me Out, interesting anti-procrastination device

keepmeout.com

7 pointsjrp16 comments

I don't think that's a solution for procrastination problem. There are three causes for procrastination:

1. Innate rationality in procrastination from lack of meaning in doing any work in general or doing anything at all. Solution: Felicity's Feather Philosophy from More Secrets of Consulting: "Since nothing matters in the end, it doesn't matter if I pretend it does matter".

2. Fear. Solution: diassociatives, rest, sabbatical, running, etc.

3. "What the hell do I do first?" factor. Solution: I'm actually working on that right now.

"lack of meaning"

If I find lack of meaning in what I'm doing I meander. Like I am now.

Pretending that something does matter when I've already come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter doesn't work for me. I can't fool myself like that without some other consequence making me do that thing.

I actually want to do things that matter to me.

Pretend that you will find meaning in the future, and between then and now you need to make some money so that when time comes you can pursue it unhindered. Works for me.

The Firefox extension LeechBlock is a much more effective tool, mostly because it is somewhat harder to circumvent and has more options: http://www.proginosko.com/leechblock.html

I use it extensively for time-based lockouts.

Sweet! My first thought was actually, "This would be much more effective as a plug-in; I never use bookmarks to navigate."

I appreciate your contribution.

I really like this interface. It's super clean and easy to use. They should really get a customized error page though. I had a typo in the first domain I tried and it kicked me to a vanilla server error page with no other information or a link back to the home page.

A newly created link should allow a first visit, rather than immediately assuming a time interval block. This made it harder for me to test in my case.

This is nowhere near as good as the leechblock plugin for Firefox, which does the same thing but does not require that you visit a special URL.

It will, however provide a tool to keep me out of Chrome, IE or other browsers to circumvent LeechBlock.

I've tried almost everything to curb my procrastination. Nothing works. I know this won't work for me, but I'm sure someone less jaded will get some use out of it.

Seems too easy to override, I tried the gmail "take a break" lab feature that locks you out of gmail for 15 minutes... but then I accidentally clicked it, and it was so easy to override with firebug (just delete the div covering everything) that it doesn't really do anything since I know its so easy to get around.

Maybe I will make one that you have to add a credit card too, and if it catches you it will draw $20 to a charity you hate. That might be a little more effective ;)

The usefulness of site-blockers as anti-procrastination tools depends on how much of a hassle they are to override. Having to use a special bookmark to visit websites doesn't do anything to make the override process more of a hassle. If I can train myself never to visit a frequented website by typing in a URL, using a regular bookmark, or Googling, then I arguably wouldn't need a site-blocker in the first place.

Yeah, when I released a free little Windows-only app called Temptation Blocker (blocked programs for set amount of time) the "hassle" part was the most important to me. The user had to type in a unique, random 32 char string every time they wanted to override it. That seemed to walk the line between too annoying (i.e. "Crap, just remembered that deadline and have to get to www.XXX.com now!") and annoying/time-consuming enough to make you remember "I should know better".

Its funny because i just deactivated my Facebook account. That was my #1 timesink. Now i still have HN but it's a pretty cool timesink.

Done by an hn hacker ?

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