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Re:Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information ov... by anabranch on Saturday December 06, 2014 @04:26PM (#8710270)
http://selfcontrolapp.com/

Works well. It cannot be turned off and you can set it for a specific amount of time. You choose the websites you would like to block.

Your phone is obviously a weak point, but it's a start.

Re:Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information ov... by Jonovono on Saturday December 06, 2014 @05:36PM (#8710468)
lol you know, unless were on HN where people know about the hosts file :P

I kid. It still works, although I use rescuetime now and it's pretty useful seeing how much time you waste on certain things. Costs money though.

Re:Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information ov... by probably_wrong on Saturday December 06, 2014 @08:29PM (#8710901)
> It cannot be turned off and you can set it for a specific amount of time

I almost stopped using the app due to the lack of an off button, after my boss asked for some data and I could not get it on time because the website was not on my whitelist.

Luckily, there is a way of turning it off. If you don't want to know it skip the rest of this comment, and otherwise here it is, in case someone needs it: the app uses the local time, so by changing your computer's time forward you can end the block earlier.

Re:Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information ov... by kazagistar on Saturday December 06, 2014 @11:06PM (#8711208)
No way to disable things is a dealbreaker for me.

It should be possible (if slightly annoying) to disable restrictions, but it should only ever be temporarily disabled.

Re:Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information ov... by Houshalter on Saturday December 06, 2014 @11:55PM (#8711289)
A chrome extension I use called stay focus has an option to require typing a long document exactly in order to disable it. Unfortunately it's trivial for even a mildly technical person to figure out how to get around it, so it's become useless for self control.
Re:Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information ov... by kngspook on Sunday December 07, 2014 @03:13AM (#8711647)
> it's trivial for even a mildly technical person to figure out how to get around it

Copy & paste?

Re:Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information ov... by ehsanu1 on Sunday December 07, 2014 @03:32AM (#8711680)
No, it counts keystrokes too, so that doesn't work. I haven't tried to get past it myself, but really all I'd do to sidestep it is go to incognito, or use one of my other browsers.
Re:Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information ov... by Houshalter on Sunday December 07, 2014 @05:11AM (#8711799)
I mean the extension itself is very easy to bypass. Just right click on it and remove it or disable it. You can also go into incognito, or a different user, different browser, etc.
Re:Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information ov... by kowdermeister on Monday December 08, 2014 @01:46PM (#8718203)
For me it's the opposite. Having a loophole to turn it off is a dealbreaker for me.
Re:Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information ov... by austenallred on Saturday December 06, 2014 @04:27PM (#8710278)
Thank you!

I severely limit what's on my phone - no social apps, for example, and it's enough of a pain that I don't browse the Internet on it much. So I've mostly solved that problem.

Re:Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information ov... by johnmw on Tuesday December 09, 2014 @04:37PM (#8725958)
Thanks. Also, if people haven't seen this yet, you can easily click on your HN username and set noprocrast: yes.
Re:Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information ov... by groby_b on Saturday December 06, 2014 @05:48PM (#8710496)
"Offtime" does a reasonable job for Android.