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Save Yourself from Time Sinks Online with LeechBlock
Posted by Gina Trapani at 3:00 AM on April 9, 2008
Even though that report is due by the end of the day, you just spend the last two hours watching Family Guy YouTube clips because you just can't help yourself. If you regularly find yourself clicking around Facebook, keyboard covered in drool, when you're supposed to be getting stuff done&mdashh;or better, going outside—it's time to break out the big guns. Restrained web surfing feels like an impossible feat for rabid infovores, but a Firefox extension called LeechBlock can help. Here's how you can save yourself from quicksand web destinations at certain times of the day with LeechBlock.
Install and Configure LeechBlock
Using Firefox, download LeechBlock, install it, and restart your browser. Now it's time to get honest. Which sites do you burn the most unproductive time on? Once you've got even just one offending site in mind, you're ready to go. To set up which sites to block and when, from Firefox's Tools menu, choose LeechBlock, then Options. A detailed dialogue box will appear, where you will set what sites to block and when.First, enter the web site domains in the text area that you want to block, one per line. My first block list looked like this:
ask.metafilter.com flickr.com facebook.com twitter.comSecond, set the time periods LeechBlock should get between you and these sites. The morning is a good time to slog through the bulk of the day's work, so let's say you want to allow yourself recreational browsing only after 3 p.m. in the afternoon on weekdays. In the input box under "Enter the time periods within which to block these sites" use military time to enter time periods. For example, to block those sites between midnight and 3 p.m., enter 0000-1500. Alternately, you can set a number of minutes you're allowed to visit the sites per hour or day (i.e., I can only check my fantasy football team's progress for 15 minutes per day.)
Last, check off the days of the week LeechBlock should apply. Then, you can optionally set a "custom name" for your set of sites, like "Social Network Time Suckers," as shown below.
The advantage to giving a set of sites a custom name is that you can split up your recreational browsing blocks into different categories. Facebook and Twitter might go into your "Social Network Time Suckers" category, but the Wikipedia and Google News might go into the "News Browsing" category, whereas TMZ and Defamer might go into the "Celebrity Gossip Mongers" category. Each of these sets can have different block times and rules (all day, certain days, certain times of day, or so many minutes per day.)
Visiting a Blocked Site
Once you've saved your settings in LeechBlock, whenever you mindlessly hit that time-wasting bookmark, you'll see a message in your browser, as shown below.
That's your cue to get back to work and try again later in your allotted time.
LeechBlock can also keep track of how much time you spend at certain sites and limit it. (For example, if you only want to check your fantasy baseball league for no more than 15 minutes per day. See more examples of LeechBlock usage here.)
Adding Sites to the Block List
Once you've got LeechBlock running, you can add another site to its block list as you surf easily using the right-click context menu. Say you find yourself on Google's Video site, wasting away minutes of your life watching the skateboarding dog the same way you used to on YouTube. Simply right-click on the page (Cmd+click for Mac users), and from the context menu, choose LeechBlock>Add this site to [Block Set Name Here]. For example, if you've got an "Online Video" set of blocked sites, you could add it there, as shown.
Make It Difficult to Disable LeechBlock
Now, a particularly determined procrastinator might say, "If it's a block I can disable, I'll do it." If you find yourself blocked from a time-wasting site you insist on visiting (and to hell with your deadline), you could go into LeechBlock's options and undo the block. However, LeechBlock comes with a clever feature built to prevent just that. In LeechBlock's options dialogue, check off the "Prevent access to options for this block set at times when these sites are blocked." That means if it's during blocked YouTube time? You can't change LeechBlock's settings to let you in after all.Along the same lines, you can set a password to get to LeechBlock's options area. (See the General tab of the Options dialog.) The purpose of the password is to throw up yet another roadblock on your way to procrastinating online. The LeechBlock developer says:
Note that the password feature is not intended for security purposes, but only to make it more difficult to bypass the blocking in haste—to delay you just long enough for your reason/conscience to wrest back control from your baser instincts! So a lengthy but memorable password will be most effective. Suggestion: try 'antidisestablishmentarianism.' It works for me!
Many thanks to LeechBlock's developer, James N. Anderson for taking our Invisibility Cloak idea and making it so much better with LeechBlock!
The following post was originally published in Chapter 5 of our new book, Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
apronk
Posted 3:01 AM 9/4/08
I've been thinking about seeking out something like this for a while now.
Here it is, handed to me right in my lap by Lifehacker.
I feel it is now my duty to try it out, and hopefully reap the rewards of a fine-tuned attention span.
apronk
fishlips20
Posted 2:42 AM 9/4/08
Greatest app ever. My productivity has gone through the roof since installing this app.
fishlips20
ACF
Posted 2:34 AM 9/4/08
@AskTheAdmin: It isn't a task in the taskbar. It is an extension and won't die unless you kill Firefox.exe. I've used it and went back and forth about its worth. For me, BlockSite [addons.mozilla.org] was a lot more to my liking.
(Original Lifehacker post: [lifehacker.com] -- though this new one is much more through.)
ACF
aidan_cage
Posted 2:27 AM 9/4/08
I'm going to have to give this a whirl sometime
aidan_cage
AskTheAdmin
Posted 2:24 AM 9/4/08
What happens if I just kill LeechTask's task via task manager?
Will that kill it?
AskTheAdmin
digitalhen
Posted 3:27 AM 9/4/08
but IE will still work :( help!
digitalhen
sugarbear
Posted 3:23 AM 9/4/08
I think the time spent configuring LeechBlock would also deter me from simply disabling the options. I wish I could chart my productivity to see how well this works.
Ha. Would you regret posting this if you saw a drop in Lifehacker's visitor traffic? I know i'm going to have to put this site on LeechBlock's blacklist.
sugarbear
tap52384
Posted 3:23 AM 9/4/08
I love the concept of this program, but I have a problem.
I need a global block for websites, not just a Firefox-specific blocking application.
Is there such a program, and if so, where can I find it?
tap52384
jswilson64
Posted 4:03 AM 9/4/08
@tap52384: Hosts file?
jswilson64
imrcly
Posted 4:00 AM 9/4/08
this is awesome tool for people with attention problems like myself, It will only work if you have to will to let it run. Just like locking you door only keeps honest people honest. I just set mine to let me have 15mins every few hours. Nothing more than a 15 min break every few hours anyways
imrcly
jaxun
Posted 3:57 AM 9/4/08
@tap52384: Try OpenDNS. I am using it as the DNS for several of my employer's sites. Used in conjunction with DNSomatic.com (an OpenDNS spinoff), it serves as a very thorough content filter. If you don't have access to your router to use OpenDNS servers, you can just configure your local network settings.
Of course, this doesn't prevent you from changing your DNS settings back, but it is at least a hassle thrown in, and works for both IE anf FF.
jaxun
mulletmandan
Posted 3:48 AM 9/4/08
Sorry, Lifehacker, I'm going to have to block you if I want to get anything done :(
No hard feelings, I hope.
mulletmandan
digitalhen
Posted 3:32 AM 9/4/08
i'm expecting my access to be blocked in the next couple of minutes :(
digitalhen
AskTheAdmin
Posted 3:29 AM 9/4/08
@ACF: Thanks! But this just isn't for me. I do go on the occasional web surfing binge but this is like locking up the fridge.
Where is the will power?
Now if we were talking about my end users... Time to block their MySpace pages... :)
AskTheAdmin
EracMan
Posted 4:12 AM 9/4/08
This works great except that I also have IE installed and if Firefox blocks it, I can still get to it via IE. Now I know that this is all about deterring you, not preventing you but I need this same functionality for IE and life will be complete.
EracMan
SirSmiley
Posted 4:11 AM 9/4/08
It's a very productive tool. Have been using it for awhile in conjunction with MeeTimer. Since your feature of Prism it is even more so.
For some reason I find it a better deterrentif I have to run a webapp for some of the more intensive time wasters. Kudos.
SirSmiley
dagwud
Posted 4:06 AM 9/4/08
@mulletmandan: Beat me to it! Does this mean that Lifehacker is trying to save me from itself?
dagwud
JeffCarr
Posted 5:02 AM 9/4/08
@Lazarus: Sure, it comes in varied resolutions. The url is [flickr.com].
I find going outside invigorating, but I haven't figured out why people say that the air is fresher. They must have some sort of add-on card that I don't.
JeffCarr
CYG
Posted 4:58 AM 9/4/08
Yeah, damn "IE Tab" in Firefox is so tempting when you are getting blocked :(
CYG
Lazarus
Posted 4:39 AM 9/4/08
What is this "outside" that this post talks about going to? More importantly, what resolution does it display in? Anyone got an url for "outside"?
Lazarus
persei7
Posted 2:46 AM 9/4/08
All I have to do now is uninstall ie and opera ...
persei7
soul_grind
Posted 5:30 AM 9/4/08
Installed it a few months back. Its been disabled since about 3 days after that.
I really need something like this... but it just doesn't stop my addiction. The problem is that i set up my blocks.. but then i have a legitimate reason to use a site at a banned time... but then to get around the block i have to disable it..
It needs a "type in this random 64 digit string and get a 5 minute extension" feature.
soul_grind
holdemm
Posted 5:26 AM 9/4/08
Taking lifehackers suggestion I upgraded to F3B5 and now this:
This add-on is for older versions of Firefox
holdemm
AskTheAdmin
Posted 5:24 AM 9/4/08
@Lazarus: I remember outside!
Want to see a slide show of it? And I think I have that link to the google map here somewhere...
[Grins Maniacally]
@imrcly: Really? I am going to have to block those ports then. Don't want to get a virus.
AskTheAdmin
imrcly
Posted 5:09 AM 9/4/08
@Lazarus: I heard that there is stuff outside that can give you cancer. I do not have the source though.
imrcly
GlennA
Posted 6:05 AM 9/4/08
"Enter the domain names of the sites..."
OK:
"L-i-f-e-h-a..."
Uhhh, did I say that out loud? ...oopsy.
:D
GlennA
imrcly
Posted 5:39 AM 9/4/08
@holdemm: using the enable older addons article [lifehacker.com] you can use the addon installer built into firefox to still install it
imrcly
jokono
Posted 6:26 AM 9/4/08
slashdot.org
dealnews.com
mininova.com
[various political blogs]
lifehacker.com
...
jokono
jw0ollard
Posted 7:52 AM 9/4/08
@peoples31: Thanks for clarifying the options. I just asked the question of disabling the add-on in my previous comment (which I don't even see posted on here yet).
Is there always a long delay in when I see my comment?
jw0ollard
jw0ollard
Posted 7:50 AM 9/4/08
So wait, what's preventing me (or my SO on their Firefox profile) from just disabling the add-on and restarting Firefox?
I was hoping that the "Invisiblity Cloak" link was the answer to this, but no dice.
Seems like a silly idea, since you can disable it with a few clicks.
Since I'm on a Mac, I'd suggest just opening Terminal, navigating to the hosts list to block the IPs of all the major time-killing websites you visit. MUCH more time consuming (especially when you go back to try and undo it several months later, then need to Google the steps all over again), MUCH harder for someone else to disable it (if you're using this for parental control), and works across ALL browsers.
jw0ollard
peoples31
Posted 7:48 AM 9/4/08
I'd like to add a few things I think the article leaves out. I am a self-professed internet addict. I've tried many options, and Leechblock seems to work the best for me.
If you wish, you can make disabling this extension VERY difficult. In addition to preventing access to the options as discussed above, it has options built in to A) disable the "disable extension" button and B) disable the "uninstall extension" button in the add-ons menu during the time that you are currently blocked from the web. Meaning that if you set a block from 9-5 with these 3 options enabled, and you want to browse beyond your leechblock limit, you cant just disable or uninstall the extension via the add-ons menu, and you wont be able to access the options to change these settings, so you are forced to wait until a time you have scheduled leechblock to permit browsing to make your changes. By then, the craving should have subsided. :)
If that seems a little TOO maximum security for you, you allow access to the options, but rather than use your own password as mentioned above, specify leechblock to require a random 64 alphanumeric character password for entry. Talk about DETERRENCE! The 64 character code is uppercase and lowercase, letters and numbers, and if you get just one wrong, it prompts you for another arbitrary code to enter.
(Sigh), it's a pain, but I'll try to access my options so I can type the code for you. This is the code I must type before Leechblock will allow me to access the options:
VPRSdTvXW1UDzJjxo1GVJePMzG5Nz6xEcnjRggSoQk27cDWwpCpV655LwfD86Y3
...the things I do for lifehacker!
So if you set Leechblock to require the 64 character code, you'll be less inclined to try to change settings on the fly. Either that, or you wont need that MavisBeacon typing skills cd anymore.
One other thing I'd like to point out is that Leechblock allows you to use WHITELISTS AND BLACKLISTS. Many of the options I researched only let you blacklist sites. Instead, I have *.com, *.net, *.org...etc blocked and only allow sites like wikipedia and gmail during certain times (sorry lifehacker).
On to the burning question...No, I did not write Leechblock nor do I profit from it in any way. I have just tried a lot of the options out there and Leechblock works for me. Like I say at the meetings, "Hello, my name is Adam, and I'm addicted to the internet." :)
peoples31
peoples31
Posted 7:42 AM 9/4/08
I'd like to add a few things I think were left out in the original post. I am a self-professed internet addict. I've tried many options, and Leechblock seems to work the best for me.
If you wish, you can make disabling this extension VERY difficult. In addition to preventing access to the options as discussed above, it has options built in to A) disable the "disable extension" button and B) disable the "uninstall extension" button in the add-ons menu during the time that you are currently blocked from the web. Meaning that if you set a block from 9-5 with these 3 options enabled, and you want to browse beyond your leechblock limit, you cant just go to add-ons and disable or uninstall the extension and you wont be able to access the options to change these settings, so you are forced to wait until a time you have scheduled leechblock to permit browsing to make your changes. By then, the craving should have subsided. :)
If that seems a little TOO maximum security for you, allow access to the options, but rather than use your own password as mentioned above, specify leechblock to require a random 64 alphanumeric character password for entry. Talk about DETERRENCE! The 64 character code is uppercase and lowercase, letters and numbers, and if you get just one wrong, it prompts you for another arbitrary code to enter.
(Sigh), it's a pain, but I'll try to access my options so I can type the code for you...
VPRSdTvXW1UDzJjxo1GVJePMzG5Nz6xEcnjRggSoQk27cDWwpCpV655LwfD86Y3
...the things I do for lifehacker! :)
So if you set Leechblock to require the 64 character code, you'll be less inclined to try to change settings on the fly. Either that, or you wont need that MavisBeacon typing skills cd anymore.
One other thing I'd like to point out is that Leechblock allows you to use WHITELISTS AND BLACKLISTS. Many of the options I researched only let you blacklist sites. Instead, I have *.com, *.net, *.org...etc blocked and only allow sites like wikipedia and gmail during certain times (sorry lifehacker).
All I need is for lifehacker to promote me to guest writer and I'd have some fancy screenshots for you, but install it and you'll see what I'm talking about under the "General" tab.
To respond to the burning question in all of your minds, I did not write nor do I profit in any way from Leechblock. :) Like I said. My name is Adam, and I'm addicted to the internet. It's nice to meet you.
peoples31
mferrari
Posted 7:41 AM 9/4/08
@digitalhen: why did you remind me!?
mferrari
jw0ollard
Posted 7:58 AM 9/4/08
@holdemm: If you go to the development site there's an XPI link. It's also a newer version than the on at Firefox's site.
Here it is (direct .xpi link) => [www.proginosko.com]
jw0ollard
Zipway
Posted 11:40 AM 9/4/08
It's funny because I literally spent the past 2 hours watching family guy...
Zipway
Kektex
Posted 12:01 PM 9/4/08
Now the only problem is I use mainly Opera.
Someone should make something like this that adds the time-sucking sites to the Windows hosts file(and its linux/mac equivalent) and sends them to 127.0.0.1
Then restore the file at certain times.
Ir shouldn´t be that hard. I think I might actually know how to do it in Linux hehe
Kektex
td.13962086
Posted 9:08 AM 9/4/08
I haven't tried LeechBlock yet, because (ironically?) my employer blocks use of Firefox, but could you get around it by re-setting the clock on your computer to an allowed time-frame? Just a thought?
td.13962086
Protector one
Posted 12:20 AM 10/4/08
I feel this is cheating. I can't stand it that my mind isn't resillient enough to just do this on its own. :S
Protector one
cupidandpsyche
Posted 1:02 AM 10/4/08
this is SOOO great! someone designed a app just for me! thanks guys!
cupidandpsyche
Ashley927
Posted 5:28 AM 10/4/08
I tried this....and it because incredbibly frusterating :-)
Ashley927
johnysavage
Posted 2:22 AM 11/4/08
I found that a good way to curb my internet addiction during certain times of the day is to use the k9 web filter. It is a free internet filter mostly designed to keep kids away from adult sites, but it also has an option to disable internet access during certain times of the day. This works on all browsers, and I use my wife's credit card number as the password so I won't have quick access to it. This might not work for those of you who need access to some sites throughout the day, but it works for me because I don't really need to be on the internet during work hours.
johnysavage