9 ms·

How to force yourself to leave the computer using the leave command

77 points by stefanjudis 6y ago

ineedasername 6y ago
I'd like something I could use to lock me out of everything but a whitelisted set of programs & websites for a set period of time. I can't tell you what a relief it would be to have little choice but to focus on work tasks instead of get distracted. Sure, I would need to have the key to the lock in case I really needed it, but it would need to be something mildly time consuming, like answering a set of relatively simple math problems that would still take a few minutes to do them all even with a calculator, to stop casual alt-tab to random distractions.
- abraae 6y ago
  I edit /etc/hosts to block access to all my common time wasters, wapo, hn, etc. Sometimes I weaken and uncomment then all and binge for a bit. But for some reason it works better for me than just trying not to go to those websites.
  - mixmastamyk 6y ago
    I used to do this and then firefox bundled its own DNS aka DOH. Still haven't decided on the best course of action.
  - mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
    I also do this, I actually maintain two versions of the file. Swapping them out is a simple one-liner, but I find it works quite well because getting the page not found errors act as a reminder of intention before slipping back into mindless browsing.
- sneak 6y ago
  There are several browser extensions that will do just that, in various different ways. I think RescueTime does it, but if you search for “distraction” on the chrome extension site I imagine you can find several different ones that do just what you are trying to do: just enough barrier to make you stop branching off to timewasters.
  - ineedasername 6y ago
    That would help for sites, I'd like something for programs too. But I'll look into the extensions, thanks.
- blockmarker 6y ago
  I use ColdTurkey, you can block any website or program you want on a schedule, or on a timer. You can add breaks, allowances and Pomodoro style setups. You can remove them whenever you want, but you can add a password I believe, or choose the option to be unable to remove the block while it is active(if you do this, make sure you leave a way to delete it). I too wanted something like that, must solve an equation or something, but this is close enough.
  - ineedasername 6y ago
    Thanks, I'll check it out. Edit: Just checked it out, yes, yes yes exactly what I need. Even let's you set an "unlock" to be a certain length of random text, which suits my needs to find something sufficiently annoying to have to do in order to break the lock. I REALLY cannot thank you enough. +1000 upvotes.
  - TheMightyLlama 6y ago
    This deserves far more attention. Perhaps even a post on its own. Ever since the rise of the attention economy I've felt more and more disillusioned with the way the internet of information has evolved. With each of us being a commodity and companies creating content that was more likely to keep us looking at the page (and ergo ads) with content that was increasingly more divisive. Any tool that helps us remove pages from our consumption that are designed to keep us engaged in that horrendous economy is simply a must have. Thank you.
  - DenverCode 6y ago
    Any suggestions for iOS?
    - amwelles 6y ago
      I use Forest. It doesn’t actually lock you out, but I’m reminded not to look at my phone when I start a timer. https://www.forestapp.cc/ https://www.forestapp.cc/
  - amwelles 6y ago
    Seconding ColdTurkey. I started using it when I began working from home a few years ago. It’s great for keeping me on track.
- jks 6y ago
  Freedom (https://freedom.to https://freedom.to) sounds like the app for this need.
- x87678r 6y ago
  I've found this problem WFH. At work all social media is blocked but at home its a huge distraction.
- Kelamir 6y ago
  For Android, the screen pinning festure works well for me, it doesn't let me to leave the current app unless I unllock the screen. Good for the pomodoro technique.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
p1mrx 6y ago
If only I had somewhere else to go.
s_gourichon 6y ago
Long story short, this is related to keeping focus when you're working as a freelancer, with the same laptop used for work and personal life. There's a simple solution that has been working well for me for years: have 2 local accounts on the machine, with everything separated, even different visual themes (like, bright for personal time, grey for professional time), and a different base color, e.g. blue and green. On principle the pro account has no login on any of the websites where I have a personal account and vice versa. Same for e-mails. That way, when on the pro account, no personal notification, only professional stuff, and vice versa. Has been helping me being concentrating on pro stuff for the last 4 years. To be precise, the separation is not totally strict, but it does not have to be 100% to be effective. Visual theme and only relevant notifications make a big part of the benefit.
- alanbernstein 6y ago
  I decided to try this when I got a new Macbook recently. There are a few hiccups: - Firefox simply does not work in macos after switching accounts. This seems like a completely unacceptable bug, but it has apparently existed for years. - home brew does not seem to expect to be used by two users, so I've had to switch into my personal account to use it. - configuring my os, shell, browser, etc now requires doing everything twice. So it's not a perfect solution, but overall it's worth the effort.
  - spijdar 6y ago
    For anyone interested, the problem with homebrew is it relies on "/usr/local" being owned by the current user to allow installing software without needing a password every time you invoke "brew". Naturally this requires you only use that user to invoke homebrew. Macports does things in a more conventional way, requiring sudo to elevate privileges to root before installing software, but should also work properly on a multi-user system, whereas homebrew sort of assumes a single-user install. (I think homebrew has some capacity for being used multi-user -- years back my CS professor had a lab of macs and managed to get this working I believe)
    - 6y ago
t0astbread 6y ago
Not exactly the same use case but there's also `at` for generic one-time scheduling. For example, to send a notification at a specific time you can use: echo "notify-send 'Tea is ready'" | at 15:30 To view and edit your currently scheduled jobs there are `atq` and `atrm`.

77 points by stefanjudis 6y ago

I'd like something I could use to lock me out of everything but a whitelisted set of programs & websites for a set period of time. I can't tell you what a relief it would be to have little choice but to focus on work tasks instead of get distracted. Sure, I would need to have the key to the lock in case I really needed it, but it would need to be something mildly time consuming, like answering a set of relatively simple math problems that would still take a few minutes to do them all even with a calculator, to stop casual alt-tab to random distractions.

abraae 6y ago
I edit /etc/hosts to block access to all my common time wasters, wapo, hn, etc. Sometimes I weaken and uncomment then all and binge for a bit. But for some reason it works better for me than just trying not to go to those websites.
- mixmastamyk 6y ago
  I used to do this and then firefox bundled its own DNS aka DOH. Still haven't decided on the best course of action.
- mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
  I also do this, I actually maintain two versions of the file. Swapping them out is a simple one-liner, but I find it works quite well because getting the page not found errors act as a reminder of intention before slipping back into mindless browsing.
sneak 6y ago
There are several browser extensions that will do just that, in various different ways. I think RescueTime does it, but if you search for “distraction” on the chrome extension site I imagine you can find several different ones that do just what you are trying to do: just enough barrier to make you stop branching off to timewasters.
- ineedasername 6y ago
  That would help for sites, I'd like something for programs too. But I'll look into the extensions, thanks.
blockmarker 6y ago
I use ColdTurkey, you can block any website or program you want on a schedule, or on a timer. You can add breaks, allowances and Pomodoro style setups. You can remove them whenever you want, but you can add a password I believe, or choose the option to be unable to remove the block while it is active(if you do this, make sure you leave a way to delete it). I too wanted something like that, must solve an equation or something, but this is close enough.
- ineedasername 6y ago
  Thanks, I'll check it out. Edit: Just checked it out, yes, yes yes exactly what I need. Even let's you set an "unlock" to be a certain length of random text, which suits my needs to find something sufficiently annoying to have to do in order to break the lock. I REALLY cannot thank you enough. +1000 upvotes.
- TheMightyLlama 6y ago
  This deserves far more attention. Perhaps even a post on its own. Ever since the rise of the attention economy I've felt more and more disillusioned with the way the internet of information has evolved. With each of us being a commodity and companies creating content that was more likely to keep us looking at the page (and ergo ads) with content that was increasingly more divisive. Any tool that helps us remove pages from our consumption that are designed to keep us engaged in that horrendous economy is simply a must have. Thank you.
- DenverCode 6y ago
  Any suggestions for iOS?
  - amwelles 6y ago
    I use Forest. It doesn’t actually lock you out, but I’m reminded not to look at my phone when I start a timer. https://www.forestapp.cc/ https://www.forestapp.cc/
- amwelles 6y ago
  Seconding ColdTurkey. I started using it when I began working from home a few years ago. It’s great for keeping me on track.
jks 6y ago
Freedom (https://freedom.to https://freedom.to) sounds like the app for this need.
x87678r 6y ago
I've found this problem WFH. At work all social media is blocked but at home its a huge distraction.
Kelamir 6y ago
For Android, the screen pinning festure works well for me, it doesn't let me to leave the current app unless I unllock the screen. Good for the pomodoro technique.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

p1mrx 6y ago

If only I had somewhere else to go.

s_gourichon 6y ago

Long story short, this is related to keeping focus when you're working as a freelancer, with the same laptop used for work and personal life. There's a simple solution that has been working well for me for years: have 2 local accounts on the machine, with everything separated, even different visual themes (like, bright for personal time, grey for professional time), and a different base color, e.g. blue and green. On principle the pro account has no login on any of the websites where I have a personal account and vice versa. Same for e-mails. That way, when on the pro account, no personal notification, only professional stuff, and vice versa. Has been helping me being concentrating on pro stuff for the last 4 years. To be precise, the separation is not totally strict, but it does not have to be 100% to be effective. Visual theme and only relevant notifications make a big part of the benefit.

alanbernstein 6y ago
I decided to try this when I got a new Macbook recently. There are a few hiccups: - Firefox simply does not work in macos after switching accounts. This seems like a completely unacceptable bug, but it has apparently existed for years. - home brew does not seem to expect to be used by two users, so I've had to switch into my personal account to use it. - configuring my os, shell, browser, etc now requires doing everything twice. So it's not a perfect solution, but overall it's worth the effort.
- spijdar 6y ago
  For anyone interested, the problem with homebrew is it relies on "/usr/local" being owned by the current user to allow installing software without needing a password every time you invoke "brew". Naturally this requires you only use that user to invoke homebrew. Macports does things in a more conventional way, requiring sudo to elevate privileges to root before installing software, but should also work properly on a multi-user system, whereas homebrew sort of assumes a single-user install. (I think homebrew has some capacity for being used multi-user -- years back my CS professor had a lab of macs and managed to get this working I believe)
  - 6y ago

t0astbread 6y ago

Not exactly the same use case but there's also `at` for generic one-time scheduling. For example, to send a notification at a specific time you can use: echo "notify-send 'Tea is ready'" | at 15:30 To view and edit your currently scheduled jobs there are `atq` and `atrm`.