Self Control is a tiny little app for people who just don’t have any. Self control, that is.
The internet, as we all know, offers endless distractions to tempt us away from our work.
But switching off internet access completely is perhaps a little too harsh.
Not to mention counter-productive. After all, it’s very likely that you’ll need to go online in some form or another to get the work done.
So how can you ensure you use the bits of the web that are useful, while staying away from the bits of the web full of kitten videos?
Self Control, created by artist Steve Lambert and developer Charlie Stigler, can help you with that. It lets you selectively switch off the bits of internet that distract you the most. Open it, then click the Edit Blacklist button. Here, you can add web domains that get in your way. You could put items like “www.facebook.com” and “www.twitter.com” in here. If you want some time away from email, enter the domain of your email provider.
When you’ve added the sites you want to stay away from, drag the timer and click the Start button.
Be warned: once the timer starts, that’s it. You can’t access those websites until it stops. Nothing you can do will bring them back, except waiting for the timer to finish. (If it has finished, and you still can’t get back on to Facebook to tell everyone how horrible it was to ban yourself from Facebook, check the FAQ – you might need to flush out your browser cache to get things working properly again.)
(You’re reading the 41st post in our series, 50 Essential Mac Applications: a list of the great Mac apps the team at Cult of Mac value most. Read more, or grab the RSS feed.)
Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He also writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. You can find out more at his website, and follow him on Twitter @gilest.
20 responses to “How To Ban Yourself From the Internet When You Need To Focus [50 Mac Essentials #41]”
Mackeeper is spyware garbage. It’s creepy, runs in the background, popping up all the time like a virus on the PC. Once you run it you cannot uninstall it. This Web site should know better.
mackeeper?
O_o..
@ bbrewer
True but totally unrelated no?
,. awesome..
I just got a $829.99 iPad2 for only $103.37 and my mom got a $1499.99 HTV for only $251.92, they are both coming tomorrow. I would be an idiot to ever pay full retail prîces at places like Walmart or Bestbuy. I sold a 37″ HTV to my boss for $600 that I only paid $78.24 for.
I use EgoWïn.com
I’d have to add cultofmac.com to that list of banned sites to improve productivity :(
I tried it, and I think I’ll stick with Concentrate. (http://getconcentrating.com/) Same idea, but a whole lot more personable, and you can block things besides just websites and mail servers (applications like Twitter or Adium for example)
It’s actually pretty dang easy to disable it. All you have to do is open up a terminal window. Type
sudo nano /etc/hosts/ type in your password and delete the lines between the Selfcontrol title. Press Control+o to write out and then simply flush your browsers cache. You will be good to go. I put an hour and a half facebook block on myself, then had it down in about 5 minutes…. :/ nothing can stop my procrastination.
It’s on the page, people. Sorry to not talk about the article, but it’s right there in the big ad to the right. Hint, you can’t see this on your iPhone/iPod, etc…
So, no it’s not *totally* unrelated to the page, just the topic.
My advice, don’t install this creepy app that this page is advertising. Your mileage may vary of course, but it prompted me to to a total reinstall.
what about a restart?
Seems you’re making a comment about an advert which appears on various pages on this site, not just this particular page. If you have something to say about our advertising, you’d be better off getting in touch with the editors (email news at cultofmac.com).
For the record, I’ve tested Mackeeper for another publication. You’re right to say it runs in the background, but it’s not true that you cannot uninstall it. I uninstalled it from my test computer without any problems.
“Concentrate” is an app that is attempting to solve a similar problem although it has more features. I’ve been using it for about 6 months and have been very happy. It allows you to set up various activities, that will automatically launch certain apps, run scripts, etc. while blocking you from other distractions such as iChat, or a video-game. It’s highly configurable and is worth checking out IMO. They charge $30, which I think is pretty reasonable given the utility/functionality, but obviously YMMV.
Here’s the link: http://getconcentrating.com/
Giles, thanks for posting this, I’ll have to check out self control as well. I always enjoy when you spotlight neat 3rd party apps that are well-crafted.