Tell HN: I blocked HN, etc. during work today. It was a whole new world. Try it | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: I blocked HN, etc. during work today. It was a whole new world. Try it

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Chris Sacca (awesome guy and investor in a few YC companies, including ours) said to us something like, "People have these moments of strength where they can say something like, 'block me from this site so I can focus' and they have moments of weakness where they break down and try to go to that site."

RescueTime will have this feature pretty soon where you can voluntarily block or limit distracting stuff on a voluntary basis IN ANY BROWSER.

https://www.rescuetime.com/blocked/url/http://news.ycombinat...

There's an example block page that you'd see if you blocked Hacker News (we have a few custom ones in the works).

I love that picture:

http://danhau.posterous.com/our-fearless-investor-paul-gra

RescueTime has turned to the Dark Side: http://www.hackerne.ws/item?id=610570

I tried this last week but found myself browsing in a VM so finally decided to just not fight it.

So if you do want to try this, make sure you block all possible ways you can access the sites (various browsers, various VMs). Kind of a pain.

This story is astonishing.

You were successful at preventing yourself from browsing from your main machine, but fired up a a virtual machine to circumvent yourself?

I always am running the VM anyway (Linux guest on Windows host); it's not like I started it just to browse. Just saying if you feel the need to block yourself programmatically you probably need to do so on all routes by which you can reasonably access the sites, e.g., various browsers and various VMs.

Perhaps you could ask your IT Admin to block the domain at the firewall level?

I feel at some point there must be a balance. I view HN as a way for me to "sharpen the saw" as they say. This is precisely why I've stopped going to those "other" social bookmarking sites. Too much distraction, not enough substance.

Anonymous proxy servers. Where there's a will, there's a way.

A year ago, I tried the same thing, and I agreed with what you're saying. Then I got rid of it. Then I started using Instapaper to browse and read things later. Then I stopped doing that.

Then I got a job that I didn't hate. I don't accidentally waste too much time on HN anymore :)

A great app for OS X that will block all connections to a specific server for a specific length of time (not just in firefox) is Self Control: http://visitsteve.com/work/selfcontrol/

Interesting. It is similar to the "noprocrast" feature on YCN, but applicable to a variety of sites. Nice work!

Is it that hard to spend fewer hours at work and more, guilt-free time doing your own thing later? We run regular M-Thu 10:00-3:30 production hours. The trade-off, of course, is that people agree to save Twitter/RSS/browsing for their own time at home. We get a lot done.

M-Th 10:0-3:30? Sure, I won't open a social website. M-F 8:30-5:00? Different story

That's 10:00am to 3:30pm (just making sure you didn't think it was 10pm-3am).

I think his point is that not everybody can set their own hours that way.

Agreed; I block sites from myself, and my increase in productivity (and morale) is amazing.

I use this plugin instead:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3145

You can turn on password protection, so that you can't turn off the plugin.

One useful side-effect of a time-tracking tool such as JotBot (note: I'm the developer) is that it routinely prompts me for input on what I'm doing.

Now, that sort of thing can be annoying to some (as opposed to some passive activity tracker), but the upside is that it makes me aware of when I'm dicking around at the time I'm doing it, rather than at the end of the day when it's too late to correct it.

I've tried blocking tools; hated them. I'd rather be allowed to make these decisions, but with a nudge that reminds me when maybe I'm getting too distracted.

Most sites that I read are through RSS feeds in a desktop client (Newsgator). My RSS client typically remains shut during the work day (except for those occasional really boring moments). That way I don't miss anything neither do I "waste" time. I make it a habit to catch up in the night or before starting to work. An empty RSS feed would make sure I don't get distracted and let me feel contented as well.

I found the only time this was remotely rewarding was when I noticed I hadn't checked HN for an entire day because I was just too wrapped up in work.

Plus, I have way too many browsers installed for a Firefox addon to ever stop me. I don't even use Firefox as my primary browser.

hmm browser plugin is ok. But I have like 6 browsers installed and sometimes I REALLY want to see it :)

I use hosts file, but I haven't put HN there just yet. Just most of the news site (so I can only access the really crappy ones with boring articles). Hosts file works for virtual machine as well since I used a bridged connection :)

I used HNs built in productivity features (No procrast, min away) during exam days it was quite good.

I can't do it. I just can't.

Do people really have such little self-control that they need to block a particular internet site via a tool like this? Just don't type news.ycombinator.com or click your bookmark for it. Simple as that.

There's usually some emotional reaction associated with such behavior. Characterizing it as a broad failure of self-control oversimplifies it.

My bad. I hadn't considered that for some, it was an emotional experience. My relationship with HN is purely informational: I go here daily to find some interesting technical stuff and read interesting discussion. But the names behind the submissions and comments are purely words.

There have been internet communities that I've been a part of that I have been emotionally bonded to. You get to know some people well and suddenly it's more a social experience than intellectual. That's a completely different story, and you'd need more than self-control to stop going there if it was becoming a time-suck.

I don't think this is a question of self-control. I noticed (only after I installed this plug-in) that sometimes when I got frustrated with a problem I would type in news.ycombinator.com by habit.

Breaking that habit definitely helped my cause.

Exactly, almost like you need the endorphin so you rush to the easiest source of satisfaction. Probably similar to a smoking or eating habit, you just need an easy win so you click on the site. Same here.

"Just don't reach for the popcorn." It doesn't work that way.

In a sense, yes, it does work that way. There's no way to say "Please block all popcorn from entering my vicinity." You can keep it out of your house, but you're still going to have to consciously not reach for it in the grocery aisle or the movie theater lobby (or fair ground booth, etc.)

Sounds like you've figured it out. Just as it's easier to avoid the popcorn in the grocery aisle or theater lobby than when it's within arm's reach, it's easier to block HN than to avoid typing "Cmd-L n" in your browser.

Think of it more as a drug. Goto this site and get a little hit, you probably already have a browser running.

Yes. http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/07/why_informa...

Most people that visit sites for new content get a tiny burst of pleasure. It's the same reason that people gamble, and the impulse is strong.

I have very little self-control when it comes to HN as it is more interesting than my day job.

Why did you block them instead of just not visit them?

You have asked a truly profound question. I don't know the answer, but it's got something to do with how brains work.

This might be relevant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_function

my hosts file is riddled with all the sites i visit on a regular basis.. in fact just today I had enabled everything (except my personal email) it's interesting because i found myself checking my email once every 10 seconds for lack of any other site to go to. Sometimes its really hard to get motivated to work on a project you hate.

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