Get LeechBlock. It's free and there's a Chrome and FireFox version. It let's you set times (or amounts of time; or both) that you're allowed to be on certain sites (that you tell it), and then it blocks you when you aren't allowed.
It's got loads of customisation and you can even tell it to not let you uninstall it or change the settings (when you're in a block-time; you'll never get stuck with it forever by accident).
Definitely would recommend.
Can I offer some practical advice? Get a browser extension like LeechBlock, write a todo list, then leave the house and go work somewhere else. I went back to school and these were the things that saved me, especially forcing myself out of the house. If I'm home and I don't want to do something then I can find all sorts of things to do (including just laying on my couch and enjoying how soft yet supportive the cushions are). If I'm at a coffee shop or library, have sites like reddit and facebook blocked in my browser, and have a clear list of tasks to do then, well, there's not much else to do besides starting to cross things off.
Yea, i pernally use leechblock to block facebook and 9gag, i redirect them to a blank page. Works perfectly when your habit goes to type facebook or 9gag in your address bar.
Having the same problems, I found the leechblock addon for firefox to help slightly. It blocks or delays access to all websites you specify in a blacklist. You can also make a whitelist of websites you're allowed to visit (useful things like webmail or dropbox) by blocking all sites using the wildcard *
and adding exceptions with +www.dropbox.com
. You can have multiple sets of websites, and configure it so you have to enter a lengthy passphrase when accessing the addon's configuration. More information: http://www.proginosko.com/leechblock/
edit: This might also contain interesting information: https://productivity.stackexchange.com/questions/4424/how-to-setup-linux-as-a-pure-working-environment
The "don't use webbrowsers with tabs" one is quite interesting, though my window manager also has tabs...
Alternatively, you can also try to first make a list of tasks you need internet for, start off by doing those tasks so you don't need to be connected anymore, then disconnect. (disable networkmanager's applet and delegate the wifi control to root only, no sudo
, or leave the place you have wifi at and work outdoors or something)
also, good article about procrastination. Nice mental images: https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html
http://www.proginosko.com/leechblock/
Block sites that distract when you need to focus. It breaks your habit of "oh just quickly look whats new on reddit/facebook/twatter" every minute.
I personally permanently blocked 9gag, simply because it did not provide me with anything but anger at the shitty memes, but the habit was hard to break.
You could use Leechblock. Or the best thing would be some addon that slows down reddit. Because I noticed if it takes some time for it to open I started thinking WTF am I doing with my time and do somethin else.
Try LeechBlock. I'm pretty sure there's a feature involving wildcards that allows you to block every part of a site except those that you choose to whitelist. Thus, you could block every subdomain of pornhub.com except pornhub.com/gayporn and pornhub.com/view_video.php. Good luck!
If you are serious about this:
http://www.proginosko.com/leechblock/
Install this plugin, uninstall all other browsers. Block reddit (and other time drains) permanently or during certain times. I personally block 9gag permanentsly (it has no added value).
Big chance its a smaller part of your bigger chronic procrastination. Therefore, i suggest you make a blocking profile of all sites that you could conceivably use for wasting time, but dont need for work. Set it to never block, make it redirect to a motivational picture. Then use the option in "extra" to set a lockdown for a certain time period.
Well... Leechblock NG can do this (how-to on example 2). I've stopped using it when the wildcard is buggy as the memory keep increasing. I don't know the current status.
> It's true, but at the same time I find myself wasting a lot of time surfing websites and useless pages, so I thought maybe I should use that time doing productive things instead.
I had (have) the same issue sometimes. I found this browser add-on called LeechBlock that helps a lot (think I found it on this sub, actually).
Basically it blocks certain websites after X minutes of use and/or during a given time period. Pretty useful for those that spend a lot of time on a computer for school/work.