by caschy Apr 3, 2011 | 8 comments
Yesterday I introduced the SelfControl tool, which made it possible to block certain web pages system-wide for a certain period of time. Some people are grateful for these tools, others accuse the people who use them of lack of discipline. I’ll just chastise myself and try out whether blocking various pages increases my productivity – indeed, I tend to "get distracted" frequently. Personally, I actually do not see this as a human weakness, but it sometimes annoys me. You dawdle around too much and get out of the workflow when writing longer texts, for example…
SelfControl is a program, but LeechBlock and Chrome Nanny are browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome, which were suggested by two readers yesterday.
No, of course these tools are not a panacea. Surely, internet addicts will always find ways and means to frequent their favorite sites, but I claim that these extensions are for a different target group. They simply help to defeat the inner pig dog by not allowing access to the pages, but simply show a slightly raised index finger when the pages are called and admonish to get back to work.
So: such tools and extensions are only for you personally, you certainly can’t use them to discipline other people, for that there are rather the blacklists in routers, proxy servers or child protection software like Windows Family Safety. But that’s a whole other story….
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Hello, I am Carsten! I’m a trained IT systems electronics engineer and founded the blog in 2005. Since 2008, it’s profession(ung). Year of construction 1977, Dortmunder in the north, BVB fan and father of a son. Also to be found on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. PayPal coffee donation. mail: [email protected]
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8 comments
Hmm, is this actually suitable to block Google Analytics and something like Facebook system wide or are there better solutions for this??
Then I would rather block these sites in the host file. Ban general access.
Exactly I don’t want to do that, because I need it for testing purposes sometimes and the hosts file is too much work for constant switching on and off.
Yesterday I already stumbled across the extension and installed it yesterday. The Internet distracts sometimes nevertheless much too often. My weak will is to blame&
@sonyon I block Google Analytics with the help of NoScript (Firefox extension). This is an extension that removes all JavaScripts and allows them via a whitelist. You can choose between allow permanently and allow temporarily. And also the already permanently allowed ones can be turned off if needed.
@caschy Thanks for the post. Have me now first installed the extension LeechBlock and think to defeat the inner pig dog is really well suited. So you get even technical help with self-disciplining& (And yes, sometimes my will is too weak to let go, it’s just much easier (and more pleasant) to surf the web than to do something useful …)
To block Google analytics or similar, you can best take Adblock Plus. Just create a new filter rule and enter the URL. You can quickly switch it on again on a page where you need it.
@cashy: as an alternative to chrome nanny I would still mention stayfocusd. i tried both yesterday and i like stayfocusd much better.
the nuke mode is great and also the settings top. between 6am-19pm i have 30 minutes a day to surf facebook, studi, my forums and rss readers, after 7pm i have unlimited time.
if i take a break in the meantime, i have my unlimited iphone for reading feeds, but – when i’m working – it’s not within reach anyway!
tried it productively today and at the end of the day had even 5 minutes left and more done than usual! the red shining eye in the bar admonishes properly&
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