How do I block a website from myself?

I can help you with OS X. The best app I found is called SelfControl, and it’s free.

There is one downside (I consider it to be the REAL benefit) of this app:
You specify a black list, and you specify a time period during which it gets blocked (say next 2 hours for example). During these 2 hours, you can NOT access the website even if you delete the app or restart the computer, so it’s not like those silly browser plug ins that allow you to switch off the filter whenever you want.

I used it for 2 days only, and it somehow taught me how to control myself without using the app.

I don’t know of any similar app for Windows.

Good luck!

Why not just stop going to that site? You know you are wasting time, get the damn guts and man up to not go to it, it’s not some damn drug.

As for blocking, if you want to do it that way and have something do it for you you’re going to have a harder time on a MAC than a PC

Modify the HOSTS file to block the site in question. Once you’ve done that any browser you install will be unable to visit that site.

(1) How do I modify the HOSTS file? (2) Is that reversible?

If you google youll find a load of info on doing this but basically the HOSTS file was what you needed to turn web addresses into IP addresses back in the day before we had DNS. It was basically a telephone book that turned the plain text fluther.com into the info the website needs to find the server. These days they’re not needed for that anymore and on most often they’re left empty. You can add a line like “127.0.0.1 fluther.com” and when you type fluther.com you’ll be sent to your own computer. Yes you can reverse it. (I’d save a copy of the file before you start messing with just in case).

In the Terminal (applications/utilities) type sudo nano /private/etc/hosts image
Enter password

That gets you here. image

Add what site you want to block like this

format is 127.0.0.1 www.example.com <—one site per line

Hit ctrl X to exit

Hit y to save

Hit enter to write the file.

Then you need to restart.

And this can be undone. Just do it over again and remove the line/s you added.

Isn’t it easier just to use the app? I’m just saying…

@XOIIO I never really thought one could kick an addiction by just “manning up.” Has this worked for you? Seems to me the logical thing to do is to remove the temptation….No?

I use Rescue Time. It has a block feature (very similar to the site mentioned by @halabihazem. If I need to really get focused on some work, I will block sites that I have identified as very distracting. If there is a free site, I would probably go for that. I use Rescue Time for other things too.

The internet browser Google Chrome has an application for this.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cgmnfnmlficgeijcalkgnnkigkefkbhd

If you use Google Chrome you can just easily install this and use it. I have not used it before but I have heard good things. This would most likely be the easiest thing to do.

To find this I went to the Chrome Web Store and searched “self control”.

Plus chrome is ten times better than internet explorer

Concentrate is a great app on OSX that can do this and a whole lot more. It has a free trial, so there’s no cost to check it out. Best wishes.

Google Chrome has the Concentrate app for free, and it’s really helpful. You can set the timer for however long you want to stay off of the site, and it won’t let you on until the timer is up. It’s really useful for when you need to get stuff done and you can’t seem to focus, or if you simply want to only allow yourself to be on the site for a constricted amount of time each day.

@judochop this is just a website, yOu can easily kick an addictive tendency to a website by growing a pair

I think I will stick to Rescue Time, I don’t really fancy growing a pair of testicles. I also have doubts that testicles have any bearing on avoiding logging into a website.