I'm not site how a router would identify "mindless browsing", but turning off Internet at certain times is a feature many routers have built in, usually under parental control. Worth a look if you haven't checked.
Personally I ended up with a bit different solution, I wanted to do something similar, but needed it to work on my phone also so I ended up using nextdns to block part of the Internet (reddit and Facebook) after 10. Works reasonably well as trigger to stop my worst doomscrolling offenders.
>How could someone realistically use the modern Internet and still avoid content that starts them down unwelcome paths? (A secular analogue might be suicide ideation.)
The bottom line is that you have to create a strong break that prevents inattentive browsing or "doom scrolling." I think the lowest impact version of that would look like something where you write out exactly what you're opening your browser for (and then stick to that.) A more severe implementation would be getting rid of your smart phone and only having browsing on a PC in a common space.
Alternatively, you might get mileage out of a system that broke you out of bad patterns early rather than trying to keep you out initially. For example, an AHK script that throws a pop up every 10/20/30 minutes to ask what you're working on.
There's more complexity than just "unwelcome path", and you would have to choose your method to match your particular problem.
I got stuck into a bad habit of browsing the internet idly anytime when I'm at home and then having to rush to get to work so I've created rules on my router to disable web access in the mornings before work and late at night before bed.
It is quite effective and I suddenly do other things but I do worry that it's a psychological crutch which is just going to make self-control even harder in the long term.
Just get into your router config and block sites that you know will suck you in (ex: reddit or digg), on your workstation. I personally block them during "my work hours", that way I have something to look forward to after I've got my work done.
It also helps to have a router config that makes it difficult and time intensive enough to make a change, that wat it's easier to just NOT make the change and get back to work.
I've been trying various "noprocrast" approaches over the years, including /etc/hosts and HN's own noprocrast settings. The one that finally worked for me was disabling distractions directly on the router - it covers all my computers, as well as my phone. I set it so that distracting sites are disabled during work hours (Monday-Friday, 08:00 - 18:00).
We're actually pretty close to this (just soft-launched our windows version-- mac version hot on its heels). Starting with focus "toggling" ("Shut of the bad parts of the internet for 30 minutes") and moving on to nudges ("let me know when I exceed 30m of news time") and blocking ("block social networking if I exceed X hours or X %").
Disabling the internet is a baby/bathwater thing for a lot of people, I think. There's too much value there to turn it off completely (research, etc).
Here's what I did, I put up roadblocks to mindless browsing: Use firefox nightly on android and do the hackery required to install arbitrary extensions, and install the "Request Blocker" extension. Block all browsing front pages, /r/all /r/popular /r/pics or whichever subreddit you want to block yourself from.
Also, I use old reddit on my desktop, and I use ublock origin to remove the entire bar of links at the top.
www.reddit.com###sr-header-area
These blocks are permanent. If I run across an important link on reddit from a google search, or someone sends me a link, I can view it. But what I can't do, is browse the front page or dumb subreddits.
Not exactly what you're looking for, but I found Intention to be very effective at periodically interrupting and also capping my daily "mindless" browsing:
Seconded. I wrote a little python script [1] that I use for this that additionally disables my network adapters during work time.
This is going to sound incredibly lazy, but I've found that a good way to keep myself off the internet during break periods (which often leads to extended breaks) is to play a game of Civilization. One turn per break and you'll be so absorbed you won't even think about HN or Reddit.
Thought I'm not much on social media but I figured out that if I can restrict myself to browse between 11am and 4pm, work will certainly automatically force me off the 'scroll treadmill'. I wrote about that in this post[1] recently.
My router at home blocks Reddit and HN except from 5-7pm and 11:45-midnight (and all day Saturday). Worked amazingly well to cut back the addiction. Now if I could just get HTTPS blocking to work on FB and Twitter.
I second that. GetFocusd is excellent at reminding you why you installed it in the first place. I blocked most of the sites where I waste my time: Facebook, Reddit, News sites and general nonsensical, but entertaining sites. I turn off WiFi and mobile internet on my phone or even set it to airplane mode in extreme cases.
Well, taking your dedicated work machine off the internet - or maybe at least blocking it on the router with a script every hour or so, forcing you to make a conscious decision about going online seems to work for lots of people.
Then again - reading tech news, for example, isn't all that bad, so how about just mapping Youtube and similar time-sinks to 127.0.0.1 in your hosts file?
Great advice here. If you can't seem to bring yourself to get rid of Internet, you can use a tool to blacklist websites for a certain period of time. I personally use https://selfcontrolapp.com/
Maybe you don't suffer from this, but these suggestions don't work.
Why? There is a sharp divide between "interacting with the internet" and "not." There is no one site (or set of sites) to block that can help. If I visit SO I now am one step away from an effectively infinite number of interesting things.
The key behavioral difference is removing the need to interact with the general net.
Burnout and tiredness are also not root causes in this situation they are a symptom of repeated failure to accomplish a goal. Pomodoro doesn't help much there.
Try using any extensions which let you block websites (even better if there's a schedule). I found a lot of my browsing came from just muscle memory opening it, which once you disconnect, actually ends up being fine.
- Delete the social media apps from your phone, set a strong password/2FA and make yourself login via web to check.
- If its a social media account used for purely browsing/posting (i.e. not used to keep in touch with family) delete it. It really changes the browsing when you can't comment and don't have a "score" to look at. [PS]
- Stop following people you don't personally know, except maybe tech related stuff since following those can be helpful (zero day vulnerability stuff, cool features, etc.) If you limit yourself to people you know, as in you actively keep in touch with, then feeds become less cluttered. Its less engaging but thats the point.
- Are you doom-scrolling? [0] Looking at "news" on places like reddit can do that. Having an account to have a curated list of sub-reddits sounds like a good idea, right? No. It encourages you to post comments which pulls you in. Limit to top 50 in r/all, any "news" that shows there might be actual news vs. scary headlines. Limit via time.
- Get an app that tracks time spent online or specific sites. Limit yourself, make it a game to lower your time.
- You'd be better off binge watching some shows/movies you like.
[PS] - I look at the HN points as an indicator if something I commented on is getting comments, like there might be an active discussion happening. I'd rather they changed it to that to encourage discussion and not encourage point gathering, but I don't work here so meh.
Personally I ended up with a bit different solution, I wanted to do something similar, but needed it to work on my phone also so I ended up using nextdns to block part of the Internet (reddit and Facebook) after 10. Works reasonably well as trigger to stop my worst doomscrolling offenders.
I wrote up a short post on how to do it https://blog.nyman.re/2021/01/10/reduce-doomscrolling-with.h...
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