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.<p><a href="http://lifehacker.com/5452620/stayfocusd-blocks-and-manages-time+sucking-web-sites" rel="nofollow">http://lifehacker.com/5452620/stayfocusd-blocks-and-manages-...</a><p>Clearly, I have not added HN to my blocklist :)
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.<p>If you're interested I did a little write-up here: <a href="http://bradjasper.com/blog/case-study-focus/" rel="nofollow">http://bradjasper.com/blog/case-study-focus/</a><p>Also open-sourced it: <a href="https://github.com/bradjasper/focus" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/bradjasper/focus</a>
I've been using an app called Concentrate (<a href="http://www.getconcentrating.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.getconcentrating.com/</a>) 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).
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. <a href="http://selfcontrolapp.com/" rel="nofollow">http://selfcontrolapp.com/</a>
I'd really like a one-click focus app that:<p><pre><code> * 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)
</code></pre>
Unfortunately, I don't have the time to make it :(.
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.
Nice, exactly what I'm looking for. A few ideas for features:<p>More options in the filter preferences. How are wildcards handled and multiple domains?<p>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.<p>Custom messages for the blocked website.
Nice touch showing a motivational quote when you try to visit the blocked website.<p>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).<p>[1] <a href="http://www.getconcentrating.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.getconcentrating.com/</a>
I just can't seem to get Focus to work.<p>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.<p>Could you add a quick install guide with the required settings?<p>Thanks!
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 <i>need</i> to block.
This app is awesome! I've tried out others, StayFocused, manually editing /etc/hosts, but I love the simplicity of this.<p>Would it be possible to add exceptions to sites? For example, certain subreddits allowed only?
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.
<p><pre><code> 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.</code></pre>
Looks pretty useful but since its OS X only, so I can't use it.<p>Btw, just cursious:<p>>Do you have a grayscale icon? I don't like colorful icons in my menubar.<p>Wow, are all Mac users this... particular?
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!
509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded<p>The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.