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Show HN: Steal back your productivity

42 points by Jasber 13y ago

robinhoodexe 13y ago
Nice, exactly what I'm looking for. A few ideas for features: More options in the filter preferences. How are wildcards handled and multiple domains? A system-wide hotkey for turning on and off the distraction (I'm an avid Vim user and do a lot of text editing so I'd prefer not to use the mouse too much). Maybe even make it work together with Alfred. Custom messages for the blocked website.
- Jasber 13y ago
  Thanks, these are great suggestions. Should definitely be able to get these added.
Killah911 13y ago
The unfinished video alone deserves the upvote. Cool idea, now I need to get back to work :)
metabren 13y ago
Nice touch showing a motivational quote when you try to visit the blocked website. I've been using Concentrate[1] so far with great results. It has a few more options (such as a growl message every X seconds) but no nice motivational quote for websites! :) Also – the first version is actually free (click the buy button). [1] http://www.getconcentrating.com/ http://www.getconcentrating.com/
frio 13y ago
I'd really like a one-click focus app that: * blocks distracting websites (and arbitrary hosts so I can't SSH to my IRC bouncer!) * starts playing some elected noise (either generated -- pink noise -- or pre-selected rain/ocean/etc.) * blocks notifications (can the OSX notification stuff be set to DnD?) * is a Pomodoro timer: will unblock everything by itself in 25min (or whatever time is elected) Unfortunately, I don't have the time to make it :(.
- robinhoodexe 13y ago
  Just to add, I'd love the ability to block notifications as well (as possible with the built-in "non-distracted mode") except for a chosen few applications. For example, I'd like if iCal could still keep me updated on schedules via notifications.
- Jasber 13y ago
  I'm working on integrating some of this into Focus already, and plan on adding pre-focus & post-focus hooks to add your own custom functionality to cover everything else. Should be out soon and the app is set to auto-update, so stay tuned :)
  - frio 13y ago
    Awesome :)
- mad44 13y ago
  You can insert scripting to the pomodoro app to block wifi (and maybe even play white noise): http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2013/05/one-pomodoro-two-pomodoro-three.html http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2013/05/one-pomodoro-two-po...
arikrak 13y ago
It would be cool if you could set a schedule for certain times to block sites (or time limits). There are various browser extensions for this, but it would be more effective on the system level.
- Jasber 13y ago
  Thanks this is something I'm definitely thinking about, but can't resolve what happens when you really do want your internet connection back. Should it just let you? What happens if a client calls or an emergency happens and you need access? Would love feedback from anyone who wants this feature.
  - thecooluser 13y ago
    I've been desperately looking for an app with this feature. Can you look at how "LeechBlock" for Firefox works? It's practically perfect but's only for Firefox. :)
    - arikrak 13y ago
      Have you tried "StayFocusd" for Chrome? The issue is it's too easy to disable a Chrome extension, and then you need to re-enable to get it back. It would be better if they allowed you to temporarily over-ride it instead.
  - arikrak 13y ago
    Most time-wasting sites never need to be accessed, though some of them are occasionally useful. I think the app should let you access blocked sites when you need to, but make it difficult in some way. E.g. it could pop up with a warning and require user to enter a code. Often people waste time impulsively so a small block is enough to get them back to work. (Alternatively, it could send out an email or post it online when a user over-rides a blocked site. Or it could fine the user!)
    - marclipovsky 13y ago
      Regarding entering a code: would it be possible to use the google two factor Auth app somehow for that?
charlesdenault 13y ago
In Chrome when going to https version of a blocked site, I get the "Error code: ERR_TUNNEL_CONNECTION_FAILED" instead of the inspirational quotes!
- robinhoodexe 13y ago
  Same here on Firefox 27
- Jasber 13y ago
  I couldn't find a way to intercept SSL traffic that wasn't insecure (method I used was a custom root certificate), so opted for a broken connection instead. I think the only way to do this securely is a browser extension which I was planning for a later version.
sneak 13y ago
There's a great free Safari extension called WasteNoTime which does something similar without a proxy, and also has the added benefit of tracking the time you spent daily, weekly, or monthly across all sites (including non-blocked ones) so you can see which ones you need to block.
msy 13y ago
There's an older app called Self Control that does this but for a specified time window and cannot be disabled once it's started, including by rebooting. http://selfcontrolapp.com/ http://selfcontrolapp.com/
- ralphc 13y ago
  Considering the number of machines, physical and virtual, that I have laying around, that wouldn't be much of a barrier.
  - aray 13y ago
    In my experience, it's not about making accessing these sites impossible, just harder. An alternative is artificially injecting a 30-second delay to any interaction with those websites. When it takes that long for a page to load, it can slowly teach you to un-learn compulsive checking. see alt text of this comic for example: http://xkcd.com/862/ http://xkcd.com/862/
chewxy 13y ago
I just use RescueTime's get focus functionality.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jaysonelliot 13y ago
I've been using StayFocusd for this exact purpose for years. As others have mentioned, there are rather a lot of extensions and apps that will selectively block distracting sites for you. http://lifehacker.com/5452620/stayfocusd-blocks-and-manages-time+sucking-web-sites http://lifehacker.com/5452620/stayfocusd-blocks-and-manages-... Clearly, I have not added HN to my blocklist :)
- Jasber 13y ago
  I saw a lot of these apps out there but none that worked quite how I wanted. I wrote a little more about this in the case study: http://bradjasper.com/blog/case-study-focus/ http://bradjasper.com/blog/case-study-focus/ Eventually my goal is to make Focus pretty extensible so you can run your own custom scripts on focus & unfocus. Hope to have some of this out soon.
HaloZero 13y ago
Would this interfere with RescueTime? I like having the metrics of which app I use the most but want to block things using Focus.
Jasber 13y ago
This is a small Mac app I made that helps me stay off Hacker News :). It's a menu-bar app that with 1-click blocks certain websites. If you're interested I did a little write-up here: http://bradjasper.com/blog/case-study-focus/ http://bradjasper.com/blog/case-study-focus/ Also open-sourced it: https://github.com/bradjasper/focus https://github.com/bradjasper/focus
- hakcermani 13y ago
  I could really use this ! but seems fine (get the nice inspirational quotes) with Chrome and Safari, but Firefox still is able to get through. I am typing this using Firefox 26 ...
- esusatyo 13y ago
  The case study link on the page is broken actually.
  - Jasber 13y ago
    Thanks for catching that! Fixed
- 10feet 13y ago
  This is great, thanks for releasing the app and the source code. Just one question, why is it so big? 1.8mb executable seems quite large. Still, fantastic!
eddflrs 13y ago
Thanks for making this. It's beautifully crafted and great attention to detail is shown with the inspirational quotes and the optional b/w icon.
james33 13y ago
I've been using an app called Concentrate (http://www.getconcentrating.com/ http://www.getconcentrating.com/) for probably 5 years that does the same thing, but it also lets you define apps and services to block (so for example, if I want to get really focussed, I block my Mail app so that I can't check it for the next hour).
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- Breefield 13y ago
  I had the pleasure of working with Made By Rocket (makers of Concentrate) when I was a senior in high school (I was 17). Living alone in downtown Boise Idaho, working 40 hour weeks for two different startups, and finishing high school, man that was a rough year.
- Jasber 13y ago
  Concentrate is great, but I'm going for something a little different with Focus over the long-term. Hope to have more features out soon that make this clear :)
xerophtye 13y ago
Looks pretty useful but since its OS X only, so I can't use it. Btw, just cursious: >Do you have a grayscale icon? I don't like colorful icons in my menubar. Wow, are all Mac users this... particular?
- psteinweber 13y ago
  > Wow, are all Mac users this... particular? I can't speak for all, but me, yes. It's just a visually very quiet area in the upper right, because most icons are black or greyscale. So it is slightly annoying if one of them is colorful.
isaacjohnwesley 13y ago
sudo vim /etc/hosts - just add the website you want to block. Be smart to Skip downloading softwares. :)
coherentpony 13y ago
Bandwidth Limit Exceeded The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.
treskot 13y ago
509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.
bicv 13y ago
I just can't seem to get Focus to work. I am using DNSCrypt from OpenDNS, but when I disable it, I still can't get Focus to work. I have Automatic Proxy Discovery and Automatic Proxy Configuration turned off in System Preferences -> Network, but turning these on didn't seem to work either. Could you add a quick install guide with the required settings? Thanks!
- Jasber 13y ago
  Hi, if you email contact@bradjasper.com I would be happy to help you set it up.
_august 13y ago
This app is awesome! I've tried out others, StayFocused, manually editing /etc/hosts, but I love the simplicity of this. Would it be possible to add exceptions to sites? For example, certain subreddits allowed only?

42 points by Jasber 13y ago

Nice, exactly what I'm looking for. A few ideas for features: More options in the filter preferences. How are wildcards handled and multiple domains? A system-wide hotkey for turning on and off the distraction (I'm an avid Vim user and do a lot of text editing so I'd prefer not to use the mouse too much). Maybe even make it work together with Alfred. Custom messages for the blocked website.

Jasber 13y ago
Thanks, these are great suggestions. Should definitely be able to get these added.

Killah911 13y ago

The unfinished video alone deserves the upvote. Cool idea, now I need to get back to work :)

metabren 13y ago

Nice touch showing a motivational quote when you try to visit the blocked website. I've been using Concentrate[1] so far with great results. It has a few more options (such as a growl message every X seconds) but no nice motivational quote for websites! :) Also – the first version is actually free (click the buy button). [1] http://www.getconcentrating.com/ http://www.getconcentrating.com/

frio 13y ago

I'd really like a one-click focus app that: * blocks distracting websites (and arbitrary hosts so I can't SSH to my IRC bouncer!) * starts playing some elected noise (either generated -- pink noise -- or pre-selected rain/ocean/etc.) * blocks notifications (can the OSX notification stuff be set to DnD?) * is a Pomodoro timer: will unblock everything by itself in 25min (or whatever time is elected) Unfortunately, I don't have the time to make it :(.

robinhoodexe 13y ago
Just to add, I'd love the ability to block notifications as well (as possible with the built-in "non-distracted mode") except for a chosen few applications. For example, I'd like if iCal could still keep me updated on schedules via notifications.
Jasber 13y ago
I'm working on integrating some of this into Focus already, and plan on adding pre-focus & post-focus hooks to add your own custom functionality to cover everything else. Should be out soon and the app is set to auto-update, so stay tuned :)
- frio 13y ago
  Awesome :)
mad44 13y ago
You can insert scripting to the pomodoro app to block wifi (and maybe even play white noise): http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2013/05/one-pomodoro-two-pomodoro-three.html http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2013/05/one-pomodoro-two-po...

arikrak 13y ago

It would be cool if you could set a schedule for certain times to block sites (or time limits). There are various browser extensions for this, but it would be more effective on the system level.

Jasber 13y ago
Thanks this is something I'm definitely thinking about, but can't resolve what happens when you really do want your internet connection back. Should it just let you? What happens if a client calls or an emergency happens and you need access? Would love feedback from anyone who wants this feature.
- thecooluser 13y ago
  I've been desperately looking for an app with this feature. Can you look at how "LeechBlock" for Firefox works? It's practically perfect but's only for Firefox. :)
  - arikrak 13y ago
    Have you tried "StayFocusd" for Chrome? The issue is it's too easy to disable a Chrome extension, and then you need to re-enable to get it back. It would be better if they allowed you to temporarily over-ride it instead.
- arikrak 13y ago
  Most time-wasting sites never need to be accessed, though some of them are occasionally useful. I think the app should let you access blocked sites when you need to, but make it difficult in some way. E.g. it could pop up with a warning and require user to enter a code. Often people waste time impulsively so a small block is enough to get them back to work. (Alternatively, it could send out an email or post it online when a user over-rides a blocked site. Or it could fine the user!)
  - marclipovsky 13y ago
    Regarding entering a code: would it be possible to use the google two factor Auth app somehow for that?

charlesdenault 13y ago

In Chrome when going to https version of a blocked site, I get the "Error code: ERR_TUNNEL_CONNECTION_FAILED" instead of the inspirational quotes!

robinhoodexe 13y ago
Same here on Firefox 27
Jasber 13y ago
I couldn't find a way to intercept SSL traffic that wasn't insecure (method I used was a custom root certificate), so opted for a broken connection instead. I think the only way to do this securely is a browser extension which I was planning for a later version.

sneak 13y ago

There's a great free Safari extension called WasteNoTime which does something similar without a proxy, and also has the added benefit of tracking the time you spent daily, weekly, or monthly across all sites (including non-blocked ones) so you can see which ones you need to block.

msy 13y ago

There's an older app called Self Control that does this but for a specified time window and cannot be disabled once it's started, including by rebooting. http://selfcontrolapp.com/ http://selfcontrolapp.com/

ralphc 13y ago
Considering the number of machines, physical and virtual, that I have laying around, that wouldn't be much of a barrier.
- aray 13y ago
  In my experience, it's not about making accessing these sites impossible, just harder. An alternative is artificially injecting a 30-second delay to any interaction with those websites. When it takes that long for a page to load, it can slowly teach you to un-learn compulsive checking. see alt text of this comic for example: http://xkcd.com/862/ http://xkcd.com/862/

chewxy 13y ago

I just use RescueTime's get focus functionality.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

jaysonelliot 13y ago

I've been using StayFocusd for this exact purpose for years. As others have mentioned, there are rather a lot of extensions and apps that will selectively block distracting sites for you. http://lifehacker.com/5452620/stayfocusd-blocks-and-manages-time+sucking-web-sites http://lifehacker.com/5452620/stayfocusd-blocks-and-manages-... Clearly, I have not added HN to my blocklist :)

Jasber 13y ago
I saw a lot of these apps out there but none that worked quite how I wanted. I wrote a little more about this in the case study: http://bradjasper.com/blog/case-study-focus/ http://bradjasper.com/blog/case-study-focus/ Eventually my goal is to make Focus pretty extensible so you can run your own custom scripts on focus & unfocus. Hope to have some of this out soon.

HaloZero 13y ago

Would this interfere with RescueTime? I like having the metrics of which app I use the most but want to block things using Focus.

Jasber 13y ago

This is a small Mac app I made that helps me stay off Hacker News :). It's a menu-bar app that with 1-click blocks certain websites. If you're interested I did a little write-up here: http://bradjasper.com/blog/case-study-focus/ http://bradjasper.com/blog/case-study-focus/ Also open-sourced it: https://github.com/bradjasper/focus https://github.com/bradjasper/focus

hakcermani 13y ago
I could really use this ! but seems fine (get the nice inspirational quotes) with Chrome and Safari, but Firefox still is able to get through. I am typing this using Firefox 26 ...
esusatyo 13y ago
The case study link on the page is broken actually.
- Jasber 13y ago
  Thanks for catching that! Fixed
10feet 13y ago
This is great, thanks for releasing the app and the source code. Just one question, why is it so big? 1.8mb executable seems quite large. Still, fantastic!

eddflrs 13y ago

Thanks for making this. It's beautifully crafted and great attention to detail is shown with the inspirational quotes and the optional b/w icon.

james33 13y ago

I've been using an app called Concentrate (http://www.getconcentrating.com/ http://www.getconcentrating.com/) for probably 5 years that does the same thing, but it also lets you define apps and services to block (so for example, if I want to get really focussed, I block my Mail app so that I can't check it for the next hour).

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
Breefield 13y ago
I had the pleasure of working with Made By Rocket (makers of Concentrate) when I was a senior in high school (I was 17). Living alone in downtown Boise Idaho, working 40 hour weeks for two different startups, and finishing high school, man that was a rough year.
Jasber 13y ago
Concentrate is great, but I'm going for something a little different with Focus over the long-term. Hope to have more features out soon that make this clear :)

xerophtye 13y ago

Looks pretty useful but since its OS X only, so I can't use it. Btw, just cursious: >Do you have a grayscale icon? I don't like colorful icons in my menubar. Wow, are all Mac users this... particular?

psteinweber 13y ago
> Wow, are all Mac users this... particular? I can't speak for all, but me, yes. It's just a visually very quiet area in the upper right, because most icons are black or greyscale. So it is slightly annoying if one of them is colorful.

isaacjohnwesley 13y ago

sudo vim /etc/hosts - just add the website you want to block. Be smart to Skip downloading softwares. :)

coherentpony 13y ago

Bandwidth Limit Exceeded The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.

treskot 13y ago

509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.

bicv 13y ago

I just can't seem to get Focus to work. I am using DNSCrypt from OpenDNS, but when I disable it, I still can't get Focus to work. I have Automatic Proxy Discovery and Automatic Proxy Configuration turned off in System Preferences -> Network, but turning these on didn't seem to work either. Could you add a quick install guide with the required settings? Thanks!

Jasber 13y ago
Hi, if you email contact@bradjasper.com I would be happy to help you set it up.

_august 13y ago

This app is awesome! I've tried out others, StayFocused, manually editing /etc/hosts, but I love the simplicity of this. Would it be possible to add exceptions to sites? For example, certain subreddits allowed only?