Distraction Blocking Tools

Uninstall Instagram and Facebook from your phone. Block them and other time-wasting sites on your computer. Start training yourself to not be distracted. This is what has worked best for me.

One of the best tools to eliminate distractions that I've found is the Forest app: https://www.forestapp.cc/ . Simple concept, install both the phone app and browser extension, set a timer for 25 minutes to 2 hours and click start. It will block any websites you have listed as distractions, and prevent you from compulsively checking social media on your phone. If you make it to the end of the timer, you get

Install a plugin that blocks all your problem sites. I'm using "Impulse Blocker" on Firefox and it's helpful to break the habit. You can easily turn it off and waste time on HN if you want to... you just need to do it intentionally. Just having that one extra barrier is enough for me to avoid almost all consumptive media during my work day (still read too much before and after work but that's my choice)

For browsing on PC, there are some pretty solid Chrome extensions that allow you to apply 'anti-procrast' controls that are similar to HN's. Block sites, set max browse time per day, etc. Give "self control" a try (not being snarky, that's the name of the extension).Phone is easier. Just don't keep your phone in your pocket. If you need it for 2FA, that's cool, just leave it far enough away that you can't mindlessly pick it up and start browsing.<p

SimpleBlocker is a chrome plugin I use to block out distracting websites.Here's what I did:1) Installed RescueTime2) 1 week later looked at my most visited websites and made a list of all I didn't want to visit again.3) I added them to Simple Blocker and set a random password.Now, I can't use chrome to access those sites, unless I uninstall the plugin. And, I've made a deal with myself that I wont uninstall it for atleast 2 months.Anyway, tools can only help

Alt Text: After years of trying various methods, I broke this habit by pitting my impatience against my laziness. I decoupled the action and the neurological reward by setting up a simple 30-second delay I had to wait through, in which I couldn't do anything else, before any new page or chat client would load (and only allowed one to run at once). The urge to check all those sites magically vanished--and my 'productive' computer use was unaffected.Earlier this year a lin

If I had a free second at any point in the day I would end up checking Facebook or reddit. I just couldn't stop myself so I deleted them. I deleted the Facebook and reddit app from my phone and iPad. This helped a lot. I still checked both in the browser so I ended up deactivating my fb account. I also use Stay Focused which is a chrome extension that blocks sites after a set time. I put reddit and a few other sites on the list. I still check HN. I see this site as educational and I don

I'd say that's a sign you probably should block yourself from HN for a while. Any time that I notice that I'm getting too compulsive about a particular site I add it to a blocked list and leave it there for a week or two. I'm also a huge fan of Freedom.app for disconnecting my internet for blocks of time where I notice that I'm too easily distracted.

This is self-promotional, but also highly relevant!A few moths ago after reading Cal Newport's book "Deep Work", I decided to try to improve my social media usage by writing an app that could block HN/Twitter/Google News (the big 3 digital distractions for me) by default, and force me to go to an extra step to temporarily unblock them when I wanted to use them. It seems like a small thing, but that extra friction of having to open my app, unblock, and then go on to th

I use Cold Turkey to block my habbit of scrolling time-wasting sites when I should be reflecting harder on what it is needed to solve the issue at hand.https://getcoldturkey.com/It's almost like I need some mental space, to meditate on the solution, but that feels exhausting, so I choose sometimes to mindlessly scroll.Any other tools that I may be missing?