The rise of Anti-Distraction Software

http://www.economist.com/node/16295664

by Saad_M • 16 years ago

56 29 16 years ago

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.

Encosia2• 16 years ago

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• 16 years ago

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.

robryan2• 16 years ago

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.

zb• 16 years ago

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

robryan2• 16 years ago

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.

klbarry• 16 years ago

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.

Encosia2• 16 years ago

What is it called?

mattchew• 16 years ago

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

Super743• 16 years ago

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.

count2• 16 years ago

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.

Super743• 16 years ago

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.

wvenable2• 16 years ago

> So the only answer to controlling ourselves is to hobble our equipment? I totally disagree.

A certain amount of muscle memory is the problem. I can open distracting sites without even thinking about it. I use the LeechBlock plugin for Firefox to block out distracting sites when I really need to get something done. For the first little while, I open the sites automatically (which, of course, doesn't work). Eventually my brain gets temporarily retrained and I don't do it as much.

Bottleneck isn't really the issue (I have big dual-monitors, for example). No matter how much screen space you have, you can only look at one thing at a time. It takes your attention to read hacker news, for example.

Super743• 16 years ago

Widening the bottleneck allows one to view, arrange and process more information. I bet you are using both monitors directly in front of you, as one large display. That's a bottleneck as well. Try putting another to your right or left and filter certain information to it. Worked wonders for me.

Controlling what your fingers do, is another matter.I am in total control of my body when using the computer.

Sounds like you might have an addiction.

moolave• 16 years ago

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.

RyanMcGreal• 16 years ago

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

pbhjpbhj2• 16 years ago

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

alanh• 16 years ago

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.)

csmeder• 16 years ago

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...

vorador• 16 years ago

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

ovi256• 16 years ago

Like I don't have 4 other browsers than Firefox, plus wget.

whimsy• 16 years ago

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

mortenjorck• 16 years ago

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.

InfinityX0• 16 years ago

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.

vlisivka• 16 years ago

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

pbhjpbhj2• 16 years ago

links2

vidar• 16 years ago

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.

The rise of Anti-Distraction Software

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