Website blocker needed

or any other way to stop me from drifting of in the www.

[jecasc]

I need the internet for my daily work, there is no getting around that. However I keep drifting of in the WWW much to often. For example when a website like Paypal takes more than a few seconds to load I'll open a new tab and check out one of my favorite blogs in the meantime. Or when I come across a problem at my work instead of getting it done I check out a news site to see if the world is still there. Then one thing leads to another and when I come to my senses again half an hour is wasted.

I already have a blacklist of websites I do not want to allow me to visit during working hours in my "hosts" file. However that seems not to be enough. (Today when I stumbled across a problem I started looking up random words in wikipedia.) Also it only takes seconds to deactivate the hosts file.

So what I need would be a website blocker where I can define a whitelist of websites that I am allowed to visit during working hours. And it should not be as easy as changing a filename to prevent me from accessing the websites I am not allowed to visit.

Anybody know about a good software? Or any other means to stop me from drifting away in the internet?

[rocknbil]

If you use Internet Explorer, you can block websites using the Content Advisor. Be sure to enable all sites without a rating, otherwise it will block almost everything. If you have no self control at all, have someone else set the C.A. password. I know this works, I had to block my stepdaughter from sucking up our bandwidth on YouTube. :-(

Or, you could just post a list of the reasons you need to stay focused on your monitor. :-)

[jecasc]

Unfortunately "IE only" solutions won't work since for testing purposes I have the full load of all available browsers installed on my computer. And one of them is always active on one of my screens.

Problem is this "drifting away" happens kind of subconsciously. I think about a programming problem and then my fingers seem to get a life of their own and start typing in a URL of one of the websites I frequently visit. Usually all I need is something to "wake me up" from this state of mind to get back to work. It's a little bit like day dreaming.

[londrum]

nothing on the computer is going to work is it, if you're already writing and rewriting the hosts file over and over. you could just do the same thing for everything you tried.
it's time to learn some willpower, methinks.
or get another job. maybe it's too boring

[rocknbil]

Wanted: web developer, focus a must. SASE resume.

:-P

We all drift. Schedule your drift time, stick to it. Somehow your mind can stay focused if you know your drift time will come soon.

[jecasc]

OK. I've come up with a solution I'll try this week: I have installed a host file manager that lets me easily add websites to my blacklist and I have created a little motivational website with a picture of a palm beach where I am redirected if I enter a forbidden URL.

What I need now is a little motivational phrase or quote to add. All I could think of until now was: "Get back to work #*$!#*$!."

Anyone know something better?

[grandpa]

Maybe you could try:

"Get back to work you lazy #*$!#*$!."

:-)

FWIW, when I drift off into webland, it's called 'research'. That way I'm always working. Problem solved.

[treeline]

"Finish efficiently, then fun!"

[mcavic]

a little motivational phrase or quote to add

I was working at a client site a while back, and got blocked when I tried to visit eBay. As I recall, it gave me a single line of text in the browser that said something to the effect of "I don't think so".

[ann]

How about, "Not on my dime, you don't."

Ann