(even though the irony that his page asks an eerily similar question as my biggest online distraction is hard to miss)
Haha, to think I clicked the link and switched tabs, and returned to find myself on Twitter...with that classic "What are you doing?" Thanks for the unintended humor, Gina.

Lifehacked

I'd have to add lifehacker to my list of sites to block... Are you guys trying to tell me something?

jimforcy

Hey, what's wrong with ignoring work and surfing the web?

Rhayader

At the office, I usually close my door to make sure I can't pick up the partial conversations of others talking too loud, (which will always make me listen for the rest). Otherwise, I have some light background music playing, to take up the small part of my brain that is always looking to be distracted.

Norcross

Thanks, Alan, that's my question too. How can I get it to pop up?

bill_peschel

The question is: How do I make Merlin's Brain in a Jar page (or something similar) appear when I open a new tab in Safari?

Alan

ok your right...

::closing tab::

::going back to work::

anthonylitz

I would love it if they added a search box.

I would set it as my home page, no doubt!

mmsk8erboi

Whenever I'm feeling lazy... AND feeling bad about it... I always refer myself to this page: [despair.com]

itslittlejohn

Freedom -- that program for the Mac that totally cuts off your network access -- is the only way for me. Oddly, it actually does feel like freedom -- I don't feel any obligation to pay attention to email, blogs, news, etc. when I have no means of getting to them. It's like having an Internet outage -- and in fact that's what I pretend to myself. "Oh well, internet's out. May as well do some non-internet stuff till it comes back on."

I usually set Freedom for 1 hour and find that I'm engrossed in my real work by the time the network access comes back. As a bonus, the less I check email and blogs, the less interesting and important they seem to be. The human brain is so strange! If you start giving a lot of your attention to something, it will keep on demanding it. I'm finding that email really will keep for an hour or two, as will a new blog post. I don't have to be on top of the entire internet 24/7.

Leechblock works, but tantalizes me -- I find myself working hard to get around it and find something else to read that isn't blocked (and it doesn't work at all when I'm on a machine with another browser). I've tried setting my homepage to say "Get back to work," and this tip is similar to that -- it doesn't work, I become immune very quickly. Just outright cutting off the internet is the best way, in my experience.

snowmentality

@itslittlejohn: i see your demotivator and raise you this: [despair.com]
this is tacked up in my office as i write this. as it guides me through my day... my lazy, unproductive days...

falc

A window like this would just make me depressed that I haven't found a better job yet. :(

phoenix

My biggest online distraction is probably Lifehacker. But I don't want to part with that yet.

furedeikun

If you want this page to show up in Opera, you can use several tricks:

To set it as your homepage:
1. Tools > Preferences > General
(2. Startup: "Start with Homepage")
3. Home Page: [URL-to-page]

To set it as default when opening a new tab, using a normal (GUI) button:
1. Click on this link to add a button for opening the homepage in a new tab:
Open homepage in a new tab
2. Click on this link to add a button for opening Merlin's page in a new tab:
Open Merlin's page in a new tab
3. If all went well, Opera's Appearance window has popped up and you can see the button added under "My Buttons" with the name "New". Drag this button to wherever you want to have it in the Opera window.
4. Done!

NOTE: if you want to customize the URL or the name of the buttons, just check out the code of my links by looking at the source of this page. Just copy/paste this in your own .html file, customize link and title, open your file and click the link...voila.

To set it as default when opening a new tab, when using a keyboard/mouse shortcut:
1. Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Shortcuts
2. Edit Keyboard setup and/or Mouse setup.
3. Find the button or gesture you use to open a new tab in the list. I always use the Down mouse gesture to open a new tab, so for me it was Mouse setup > Application > Gesture Down
4. Double-click on the description in the Actions column and change the Action accordingly:
- for opening the homepage: New page&Go to homepage
- for opening a predefined URL: New page&Go to page, "[URL-to-page]" (include quotes)
5. Done!

(crap...wasted an hour figuring this out myself and writing it down for you folks)

Miletos

I have a little "trick" I use now and then to try and keep me focused or at least manage my wasted time better. I use a freebie app called PC Chrono and will give myself like 15 or 20 minutes for a specific task. That could be browsing my favorite sites, checking my email, etc.

It can help with more productive tasks as well. I find it's much easier to work on certain things if you can break those items up into small chunks of time. "Ok, I really don't want to work on my resume, but I'm going to devote a solid hour to it and then treat myself to 10 minutes of Lifehacker." I, for one, have no concept of time and can spend hours on the most inane and non-productive work imaginable. A system like this can keep you accountable and very much aware of where your time has been spent.

You could simply use a watch with a timer or an alarm clock, but that's so 20th century. I find it's much more appealing to have the MCP from Tron tell me, "Stop, please. You realize I can't allow this!"

RighteousDork