Stop web procrastination with LeechBlock

Posted on April 30, 2008 at 5:10 am

The Internet is without a doubt, a wonderful place to be. It contains many useful elements that can be used to improve our life. However, the Internet has a dark side too – sometimes we get too addicted with certain websites e.g. social networking sites, online forums, etc. and we can’t stop accessing them every once in a while.

To curb the addiction to websites like these, self control is definitely not enough (at least for me!). If you are looking for an online productivity tool that can ease this problem, try LeechBlock.

LeechBlock is a simple productivity tool that comes in the form of a Mozilla Firefox extension. If web procrastination is your sickness, LeechBlock can be the cure. It works by blocking websites at a time that you have specified previously.

Earlier, I had written about another service called 8AWeek, which also helped in trying to increase your productivity by curbing Internet usage, but LeechBlock is a little bit more proactive!

To start, you need to install LeechBlock, restart your browser and access its option from the Tools menu. Next, you need to enter a list of websites that you want to block and set a few, time based rules. Whenever any of the rules are matched, LeechBlock will block you from accessing a website. It’s that simple.

blocked-websites-screenshot

LeechBlock Features

  • Specify up to 6 sets of sites to block. Each set can contain more than one websites to be blocked. I recommend that you rename and use each set for each category of websites. For example, set the first one to block all social networking sites, the second one to block all email websites and so on.
  • Three ways to block a website:
    • Within a certain period of time – example: block abc.com during work time, from 9 AM to 5 PM.
    • After a time period – example: block abc.com after 15 minutes of access. The time will only start ticking when a blocked website is in focus. You can optionally set LeechBlock to display how much time left that you have on the status bar.
    • A combination of both of the time-rules above – for example: block abc.com from 9 AM to 5 PM AND after 15 minutes of access.
  • Choose the days in a week for the rules to be applied. For example: you can block access to abc.com from 9 AM to 5 PM, on weekdays only.

leechblock-settings-page

  • Lockdown – use this feature to immediately prevent yourself from accessing a set of block websites within a certain period of time. Great to use when you have to focus on a lot of work that needs extra attention.
  • Wildcard support – you can block a whole website with a wildcard (*.abc.com) or only a part of a website (block abc.com/home only)
  • Exceptions support – you can block a whole website but allow a part of it to be accessed with the plus sign (*.abc.com and +accessible.abc.com)
  • To discipline yourselves from modifying LeechBlock settings, you can:
    • Set a password or random access code to make it harder for you to access LeechBlock.
    • Prevent access and modification to a blocked set when certain rules are running.
    • Set the “Disable” and “Uninstall” button to disappear from LeechBlock Firefox’s add-on menu.

leecblock-general-settings-page

  • “Load from URL” option allows you to add the current website URL to a LeechBlock set.
  • Set a custom page to be shown when blocked rules are triggered.

If you have problem separating work from web browsing time (in short: web procrastination), then LeechBlock is one of the online productivity tool that you ought to have. I recommend that you set it with all the “disciplinary” settings turned on to get the best effect. However, if you are still procrastinating once all of these options are turned on, I recommend that you turn off your Internet modem (lol!) Try LeechBlock today!

This is a guest post by Syahid A. from TechMalaya

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Comments

6 Responses to “Stop web procrastination with LeechBlock”

  1. Abhijeet from Jeet Blog said on : May 1st, 2008 at 10:10 am

    Awesome tool ! I was searching for such a tool because my brother is addicted to some social networking tool which I wanted to block.;) Thanks Syahid and Aseem for this find


  2. akishore said on : May 1st, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    Abhijeet, too bad for your poor brother! hahaha It is definitely useful for blocking out those time wasters though!


  3. Nick said on : May 4th, 2008 at 2:22 pm

    Hmm… but can it stop stumbleupon? That would be a great feature.


  4. akishore said on : May 4th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

    Nick, good point! I’m not really sure about that. I guess you could use the wildcard and block *.*, but then you would not be able to visit any site at all!


  5. Alex said on : November 11th, 2008 at 2:06 am

    I tried to download this application but it said that it was not suitable for firefox 3.3 What should I do?


  6. mia said on : October 28th, 2009 at 10:43 am

    Me too – I’ve got firefox 3.5.3 and it says that it’s not compatible! I desperately need it – I get so easily distracted …


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