I use SelfControl on my Mac when I need a serious work session. It always surprises me, when I tab to HN or Reddit and get blocked, how automatic an action it was. I’m never inclined to fight it. It never represented an actual desire to be there. There’s no deep longing to say “no” to. After the first few times being thwarted, it stops for the next several hours.
I still feel the push “away” from what I’m trying to focus on, but it’s not “towards” anywhere in particular. So as long as I divert to something that’s itself not too interesting, I will tire of the diversion and get back to work in short order. It’s only debilitating when the diversion captures me for hours (looking at you, YouTube recommendation algorithm).
I do the same. I even used the terminal commands to change the granularity of the blocks and extend the length.
And the same things happens to me. A lot of times I don't even want or think of going to HN, Reddit, Twitter. I'm just bored or frustrated and, almost unconsciously, I hit the shortcuts for Browser > New Tab > Focus Address Bar > Start typing n, r or m (for mobile.twitter.com).
Some things that helped a lot with this, together with SelfControl, is to change all new tabs to a blank page and disable autocomplete in the Firefox navbar.
That last one is not very good for everything, so it would be better to just delete those automatic sites from the suggestion list. I never really took the time to see how it's done of FF, though.
To change the timings in SelfControl, use (sorry, it is a very very old note in Evernote so I don't have the original source anymore):
defaults write org.eyebeam.SelfControl MaxBlockLength -int [maximum block length in minutes]
defaults write org.eyebeam.SelfControl BlockLengthInterval -int [block length interval in minutes]
Even if it’s mechanical it works. I keep hitting Reddit or HN when I’m compiling or uploading or switching tasks. Blocking it for 8 hours (sometimes for days) really helps me stay focused and get my work done so I can do something actually relaxing
I find the 'frequently visited pages' on safari on a blank new tab get me visiting those sites without intentionally going to them reinforcing the most frequently visited pages rank order.
I still feel the push “away” from what I’m trying to focus on, but it’s not “towards” anywhere in particular. So as long as I divert to something that’s itself not too interesting, I will tire of the diversion and get back to work in short order. It’s only debilitating when the diversion captures me for hours (looking at you, YouTube recommendation algorithm).