[lb4r]

> Unfortunately, nowadays I instead get addicted a lot to various websites, like YouTube and ... Hacker News.

I realized this about myself recently as well. I found a pretty good solution that works for me and may or may not work for you.

1. Disable all Youtube search history (no more recommendations!)

2. Use your hosts file to block sites you spend too much time on. To visit them you have to go through the effort of opening the hosts file and edit it (which for me requires typing in a long password because sudo). This was enough to break my habit of mindlessly visiting them. Here's an excerpt from mine:

127.0.0.1 youtube.com

127.0.0.1 www.youtube.com

#127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com

127.0.0.1 chess.com

127.0.0.1 www.chess.com

127.0.0.1 reddit.com

127.0.0.1 www.reddit.com

127.0.0.1 facebook.com

127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com

3. For your smartphone, uninstall all browsers and just use Firefox Focus. Turns out having to manually enter URLs and searches without auto-complete is pretty shitty user experience (which is good in this case!)

[hirvi74]

There is a free and open source app called SelfControl for macOS. It allows one to block access to any site one adds to the list in the app for the amount of time the user chooses. Attempt to use multiple browsers, restarting one's machine, deleting the app, etc. won't get around the block either. It's been super helpful for me, so I thought I'd just throw it out there.

https://selfcontrolapp.com

[mjrpes]

If your addiction isn't too strong, this windows app lets you quickly switch between host profiles: https://github.com/jerone/HostProfiles

[lb4r]

The idea is that there should be some amount of 'friction' involved. I used to have a script that made it easier, but realized after a while that it defeated much of the purpose of blocking the sites in the first place.

[cubefox]

Thanks for the tips. (Blocking sites in the router software works as well as in the host file.)