Been reading blogs too much when you should be doing work? Check out this cool application, Temptation Blocker (only for Windows):
So, have a major deadline looming or ripe opportunity closing and just don’t have time to waste playing Half Life 2 or checking Bloglines one last time? Well then, add Half Life 2 and Firefox to the list of programs you want to block in Temptation Blocker, set the timer for how long you want to block them and then hit the “Get Work Done!” button.
Now, everytime you try and access Half Life 2 or Firefox, you’ll get a dialog box telling you how much time you have left before you can access that program. During this blocked time, you can’t access those programs. You also can’t access Temptation Blocker during this time without entering in a random, 32-character string. This acts as a deterrent from you getting to your program before time is up, but it also let’s you access it if you really need to. (Note: During the blocked time, your Windows Task Manager is also disabled, in an attempt to save your from yourself and a quick Ctrl-Alt-Del. If you don’t like that idea, then you probably shouldn’t download the software).
I don’t think that the fact that I am reading and now responding to this blog entry instead of finishing my proposal, is in any way a sign that I have a problem … ; )
I just downloaded Temptation Blocker, and will try it out in the battle against myself. I’ll report who won on my blog (that is, once I’m allowed to use Firefox again).
Thanks!
I will try to install Temptation Blocker on my Linux PC using Wine. Then I can block the temptation and at the same time continue browsing.
Dave,
I installed Temptation Blocker last Friday and stopped blogging immediately. As you can see on my blog it really worked.
Thank you Temptation Blogger!