
Show HN: A Firefox extension to break the habit of typing distracting websites - vishaldpatel
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/focus-by-cabana-labs/
======
hollerith
what I've been doing for the last 3 or 5 years (in Firefox, which is the
browser under discussion in this submission) is setting the following to
false:

browser.urlbar.autocomplete.enabled

browser.urlbar.suggest.bookmark

browser.urlbar.suggest.history

it does not literally stop me from typing in for example
"news.ycombinator.com", but it makes it so that I have to type every last one
of those 20 characters, which leaves enough time between my (impulsive)
decision to act and my (fast and nasty) reward to prevent most instances of
procrastination.

(then I put frequently-accessed URLs that do not cause procrastination on the
Bookmarks menu and the Bookmarks toolbar.)

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petra
what about google's autocomplete? it's to search sites using google.

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hollerith
Firefox has a separate field for search queries that is in the nav bar like
the location field (terminology? I mean where the URL goes) is (and like the
back button, the refresh button, the "downloads" button, etc, are) but is not
combined with the location field.

At least _my_ Firefox does, and I don't _think_ I customized that particular
aspect of Firefox.

I seem to recall someone here saying that Firefox decided not to combine them
(location and search fields) for privacy reasons. In particular, the user can
be sure that anything typed into the location field is never sent to Google's
autocompletion servers.

I could be wrong about the things I said in this comment, though.

~~~
kuschku
Actually, since the latest nightly, they are combined, and you can turn search
completion on or off

~~~
lol768
Is this going to be something that users can customise?

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afarrell
If you find yourself just turning this extension off or undoing the edits to
your host file, you should try
[http://selfcontrolapp.com/](http://selfcontrolapp.com/) for OSX, which blocks
URLs for a specified period of time without the ability to unblock them. It is
open source, so in theory you could presumably go source diving to find a way
around it, but that would take more effort and focus than doing whatever you
are supposed to be doing.

Also, if you find yourself desperately needing this, consider the possibility
that you may want to get more/regular sleep, exercise, and better food. "Sleep
is for the weak" is a load of horseshit. Your brain is a part of your body and
you should take care of both. This got me through the last parts of undergrad
and I am very grateful to the maintainers, but I wish I'd not needed it.

EDIT: there is apparently an app
[http://getcoldturkey.com/](http://getcoldturkey.com/) for windows. I've never
tried it though.

Also, Momentum for Chrome is a good replacement for the "recent pages" new tab
screen:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/momentum/laookkfkn...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/momentum/laookkfknpbbblfpciffpaejjkokdgca?hl=en)

~~~
vishaldpatel
There's no substitute for a healthy lifestyle. That said, even with one, you
may find that you need a tool like this. I know I do.

I added the ability to turn it off as a feature after needing it! =). But yeah
- there are heavier alternatives for heavier needs.

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GrinningFool
I've tried several tools similar to this, and they're all coming from the
right place. But..

1) being told that this isn't the time to do something doesn't change that I
feel it's time to do something. It just annoys me.

2) There's no substitute for simply making the choice to not go to those
distracting web sites.

Distractions abound, but in my experience I've found that looking to
technology to solve what is fundamentally an error in my thought process is a
mistake. Changing the thought process isn't the easy way to go about it but it
is ultimately the only way that's going to be effective in the long term.

Tools like this don't help much with that process[1]. Instead they provide
[again, in my experience] a band-aid that helps cover the wound, so to speak -
they let me avoid seeing that I needed to make changes.

[1] one benefit they do provide is to make you more aware of what you're
doing.

~~~
afarrell
> Changing the thought process isn't the easy way to go about it but it is
> ultimately the only way that's going to be effective in the long term.

How does one actually change the thought processes? Or begin to make progress
changing the thought processes?

~~~
GrinningFool
Set up an arduino interfaced via usb that delivers a shock every time you
start to meander :D

More seriously - I think it's key to realize that sidetracking to various
websites isn't the actual problem - it's more a symptom of not wanting to do
the task at hand.

Here's what worked for me: When I started to suspect that this was costing me
more time than I realized, I figured to measure it. I just started writing the
time down each time I mentally wandered off and started browsing, and then
again when I stopped.

It didn't take long to see that this added up to a depressing amount - but the
awareness of how frequently and how long was critical for me, and the brief
pause where I 'had' to write down something when I was about to start was
enough for me to check myself and do one of two things:

1\. (more frequently) realize that I wasn't in a mental state to get back on
task, and take a quick walk, get a drink, w/e. The time to do this is much
less than the time I'd spend on noodling about, still let me get my mind off
of it briefly, and often let me become aware of why I was avoiding whatever
the task was.

2\. just get back on task (this became easier with time, though 1) is still
sometimes more beneficial)

Hmm, maybe I should make a plugin for that :D

In any event, this manual tooling to simply track what I was doing was enough
for me, and it worked better than throwing artificial obstacles into my path.

------
CGamesPlay
Related: [http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/02/18/distraction-affliction-
corre...](http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/02/18/distraction-affliction-correction-
extensio/)

I briefly used RescueTime's functionality for this. Eventually I actually
settled on a separate browser profile for distracting sites. Basically, on my
work Chrome, I only have productive sites, am not logged into any distracting
services, or anything like that. I can use Chrome's user switching to open my
"distracting" session, but the extra effort to do that helps me maintain
focus.

------
ars
Leechblock works very well for this:
[http://www.proginosko.com/leechblock/](http://www.proginosko.com/leechblock/)

It counts how long you are on an "illegal" website and only blocks when you
exceed the limit.

It's fully customizable for timelimits and method of blocking.

~~~
ahstilde
I use leech block. I can't get the timer to work for multiple sets of
websites.

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itake
I like the idea. I find blocking websites with my host file being the best
tool for protecting myself against distraction.

It would be pretty neat if this was a website that I could point my blocked
domains to

~~~
vishaldpatel
The hostfile is great! I use it for more permanent blocks. Reason I use the
plugin is to be able to turn blocking on and off quickly if I need to, and as
of the next version which will hopefully be available tomorrow, I'll be able
to block going to sub-directories.

So, say you have a habit of typing in /r/cars ... I don't know how to block
that using a hostfile, but with the plugin this won't be a problem.

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azar1
I feel like it would work better if it took you to something like a shock
website ;)

~~~
vishaldpatel
Haha - I tried it. It's shocking at first and annoying soon after. I figured
that soft power is the way to go.

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thucydides
Does anything similar exist for Chrome? AFAIK, default Chrome won't let you
disable autocomplete in the address bar.

~~~
vishaldpatel
I'm sure there are - not sure how lightweight they are though. I'll release a
Chrome extension fairly soon.

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J_Darnley
Where the heck did the install button go to on Mozilla's website?

~~~
vishaldpatel
If you're on Firefox on the desktop, then it installs the add-on. To see which
add-ons you have installed, go to Tools -> Add-ons in Firefox! Thanks for
trying out the plug in :)

