

The rise of Anti-Distraction Software - Saad_M
http://www.economist.com/node/16295664

======
Encosia
Like probably most of you, I need an Internet connection to do my legitimate
work. Though some of these productivity guards do allow granular control of
their blocking, it's too much work to keep them in sync with my changing
projects and reference needs.

I read an interesting article recently, discussing the idea of "habit fields".
Basically, their assertion was that our bad habits, like checking email or
refreshing HN, are tied to physical location as much as anything else. The
idea isn't new or unique, but is interesting when applied to this issue of the
digital shallows.

So, I've been trying to tackle the problem from that angle instead. I force
myself to use an iPad or laptop for casual reading, only in the same physical
areas I would normally read physical books for leisure. If I see something
interesting while I'm at my development machine, I send it to Instapaper for
later and close it immediately.

It's hard to quantify, but seems to have had at least some positive impact on
my ability to sit down at my development machine and easily focus on
productive tasks.

What's really scary is how large a majority of Internet users are being
exposed to the same brain drain we are, but aren't as acutely aware of it
because they're refreshing Farmville instead of HN.

~~~
ambulatorybird
Sounds like something Paul Graham once wrote about using separate computers
for work and leisure. You end up feeling uneasy spending too much time at the
wrong machine because you're more aware of the difference in physical context.

------
vidar
As engineers we should be looking at root cause, not fixing the superficial
symptoms. The root cause here is that we don't have 100% control over the
decisions that we make. The way to gain that control is not via willpower or
superdiscipline, but rather through meditation which trains our brains to
recognize the moment where we are about to fly off to Facebook/HN/Twitter.
Mindfulness is the key word, see <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc>
Its almost embarrassing how much that video changed my perception of my
decisionmaking.

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zb
Ironically, I got distracted about 3 paragraphs in when I had to go research a
bunch of those tools they mentioned. Sigh.

~~~
robryan
Yeah, usually when I'm reading about something on distraction I read it more
carefully just to try and prove to myself that it's not me their referring to.

------
robryan
When studying for exams last week I went down to my girlfriends holiday house
which doesn't have the net, only internet was 3G on my phone but it was on
roaming so it would be costly to use for anything but the basics.

If you are able to locally store everything you need it's a great way to get
more things done, I also seemed to sleep more normal hours because there is
less to keep me distracted.

With these productivity programs, an interesting way to keep people on focus
without making them physically impossible to break is to hook them up to
people facebook/ twitter/a website designed for it where each time they broke
the restrictions a popup asks them to write a short message on why they did.
No better way to highlight any real concentration problems than let your
friends see every time you can't keep to your goal.

------
InfinityX0
My favorite tips for avoiding distraction online:

1) Understand that load times, when constantly browsing, are a huge source of
"jumps". When a page takes along time to load, I jump to a different task. Use
this knowledge appropriately.

2) Bulk load. Any time I can use one area/task to the maximum in terms of time
used, I should. Starting is one of the hardest things to do, so if I have the
ability to write four blog posts or code for 10 hours straight or research
vehemently, I do so for as many tasks as I can, not just one. Break it down,
then spread it out to as many other tasks as that one interface allows.

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mortenjorck
I enabled OS X's Single Application Mode about three weeks ago and haven't
switched back yet. The decision to try it was spurred by more time spent with
an iPad. I also tried replacing the mode with Isolator on my work computer,
which is looking promising for the more inter-application-focused workflow I
need there.

It's amazing what a difference either of these approaches makes. Given that
this movement is getting coverage in The Economist now, I almost expect Apple
to implement something not entirely unlike Isolator for 10.7.

------
RyanMcGreal
My anti-distraction software: I type `sudo nano /etc/hosts` into bash and un-
comment the domains that commonly distract me.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Why don't you have 2 hosts files and a small script to swap them over?

~~~
alanh
Go ahead, shave the yak! (This should not take long at all, but I wanted to
make the point about taking time to make tools to help save time.)

------
Super74
So the only answer to controlling ourselves is to hobble our equipment? I
totally disagree. That's like saying the only way to quit drinking is to lock
yourself in a room with no alcohol. Eventually you have to come out and face
your problem. But I think it is more than a self control issue.

It's the bottleneck that forces us to make choices as to what we are doing at
any given time and keeps us opening and closing applications or minimizing
screens to fill the single desktop real estate.

Hardware needs to adapt to the amount of information out there and it hasn't.
The single monitor desktop environment is 30 years old. Break that bottleneck
and you will have more information under your control at any given time.

~~~
count
Kind of ironic you chose quitting alcohol as your comparison - locking people
in a room is _exactly_ what many high-intensity anti-alcoholism/drug abuse
programs do. You stay in there with nothing but food, water, and maybe some
books until you've gotten through the cold sweats, the puking, and the other
associated symptoms of withdrawal. Once your body has returned to a semblance
of normalcy, you start treating the psychological addition issues - which is
virtually impossible while drunk/high or while 'coming down'. So a period of
cold turkey pain is some times necessary.

I don't know if that's the 'best' way to handle it (I'm not an addiction
specialist, I just have many addicts in my family - 2 of which have gone
through similar programs), but it is certainly effective. Both of the family
members who went through such programs have been clean for >20 years
afterward, after 15-20 years of abuse.

~~~
Super74
You countered with "So a period of cold turkey pain is some times necessary."

How does that apply to turning off your services? Doe one then seek counseling
before turning them back on? Or in the case of the alcoholic, never turning
them on again? Goodbye Twitter!

Maybe I made a bad analogy, my point was that information overload is more a
general problem than addiction, another topic altogether. But in both cases,
you still have to face your problem. Cold turnkey is only a temporary
solution.

Avoiding distractions is not a physical addiction that one needs to go "cold
turkey" with. If so, the user has bigger problems than information overload.
Game addicts would fall into that category, not those following Twitter or any
other real-time media.

I use several monitors and have dedicated my social media to only one of them
and I removed the audible alerts which I never liked anyway. My work area
always remains on the center monitor, whether I am reading an article, writing
a proposal or the like. When I need to stop and catch up on my real-time
media, it is always there to my left. I don't need to re-open any apps or log
back into any services or un-hobble my network. That alone would take more
time from my schedule than a little self control.

If we are talking about addicts, then this is another discussion altogether.

~~~
count
I don't disagree with you at all, and you raise a number of good points. I
thought we were talking about addicts though - which is why I took it where I
did.

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csmeder
This reminds me of an Idea I never got working. I want to set up a cron job to
disable my internet from 7pm - 7am would any one be willing to help?

I posted the question on StackOverFlow
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3027574/help-with-
running...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3027574/help-with-running-
crontab-from-root)

~~~
vorador
LeechBlock, an add-on for firefox, does exactly that.

~~~
whimsy
No, that disables HTTP/S through Firefox. It will not disable your e-mail
client, or your instant messengers, or anything else.

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moolave
This is probably the thesis behind this article:

<http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_nicholas_carr/2/>

Now try reading through this article without getting distracted.

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sliverstorm
Unfortunately, the better the software is at disabling this or that, or
cutting off the internet, the harder I will try to beat it. Just for fun,
really.

It would be like an escape artist locking himself in a cleverly secured cell
to make himself work on something.

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klbarry
I use an excellent free chrome tool that disables my main productivity killers
from 9-5 (hacker news, something awful, nytimes.com). It works for me.

~~~
Encosia
What is it called?

~~~
mattchew
I'm guessing StayFocusd. At any rate, that's what I use and it is good.

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vlisivka
In Linux, just switch to text console. :-)

~~~
pbhjpbhj
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