4 ms·

Most of those reasons seem exaggerated, except one: News wastes time. It's just to easy and effortless to click on news stories and bam - there goes 45 minutes

by arikrak 14y ago

Most of those reasons seem exaggerated, except one: News wastes time. It's just to easy and effortless to click on news stories and bam - there goes 45 minutes of time. Does anyone know a good program that blocks you from e.g. wasting more than 25 minutes reading news each day? Browser tools are too easy to bypass to be effective. (Editing the hosts file works, but then you can't visit those sites at all.)

OGinparadise 14y ago
Most of those reasons seem exaggerated, except one: News wastes time. It's just to easy and effortless to click on news stories and bam - there goes 45 minutes of time. At least, but then you also need to know what's happening and not every second can be monetized, we'd become robots. I wish I could limit it to 15 minutes in the morning (Earthquake in ...; shooting ...; health care law ...; ....), 15 midday; 15 at night and then just chill looking at special interest sites like tech, archeology, history etc.
GHFigs 14y ago
Editing the hosts file works, but then you can't visit those sites at all. Consider doing that for a week (or however long) and see if your habit changes. I've found that sense of effortlessness declines after such a break.
- slig 14y ago
  One of my "new year resolution" this year was to block news sites on my /etc/hosts. Almost 5 months in and I'm not going back. The next step is blocking reddit.
  - pbhjpbhj 14y ago
    and HN?
    - slig 14y ago
      I believe I get positive value from HN. So while it's a good way to procrastinate, I'm think HN is a good news source to learn about new stuff, new frameworks, neat projects, etc.
arikrak 14y ago
There are some apps that let you block sites effectively for a block of time (like selfcontrol for mac), but I didn't see any that monitor your daily usage and then block the sites. (Though various extensions do that.)

4 ms·

Most of those reasons seem exaggerated, except one: News wastes time. It's just to easy and effortless to click on news stories and bam - there goes 45 minutes

by arikrak 14y ago

OGinparadise 14y ago
Most of those reasons seem exaggerated, except one: News wastes time. It's just to easy and effortless to click on news stories and bam - there goes 45 minutes of time. At least, but then you also need to know what's happening and not every second can be monetized, we'd become robots. I wish I could limit it to 15 minutes in the morning (Earthquake in ...; shooting ...; health care law ...; ....), 15 midday; 15 at night and then just chill looking at special interest sites like tech, archeology, history etc.
GHFigs 14y ago
Editing the hosts file works, but then you can't visit those sites at all. Consider doing that for a week (or however long) and see if your habit changes. I've found that sense of effortlessness declines after such a break.
- slig 14y ago
  One of my "new year resolution" this year was to block news sites on my /etc/hosts. Almost 5 months in and I'm not going back. The next step is blocking reddit.
  - pbhjpbhj 14y ago
    and HN?
    - slig 14y ago
      I believe I get positive value from HN. So while it's a good way to procrastinate, I'm think HN is a good news source to learn about new stuff, new frameworks, neat projects, etc.
arikrak 14y ago
There are some apps that let you block sites effectively for a block of time (like selfcontrol for mac), but I didn't see any that monitor your daily usage and then block the sites. (Though various extensions do that.)