The modern world is full of distractions, most of them online. Knowing which websites to avoid is one thing – we all have our own triggers for procrastination. However, relying on willpower alone to keep you from accessing your favourite websites and losing a significant chunk of your day to them is a risky strategy. For most of us, the temptation is simply too great for us to stay away for very long.
Why You Should Block Websites
Websites that distract us from our work, studies, friends, and even family, might seem harmless enough. But if you don’t keep your tech usage in check, it is easy to detach from the real world and start to lose contact with the things that matter.
It is also easy to underestimate the very real problem of technology addiction. Games, apps, and online services are designed to get the dopamine flowing – they trigger a sense of reward. If your tech usage begins to eclipse other important aspects of your life then you have yourself a bona fide addiction. Blocking your access to the most problematic websites is the first step in taking back control of your life.
How To Block Websites
Modern problems require modern solutions. An innovative solution like Blocksite enables users to easily block their own access to the apps and websites that eat up most of their time. If you can’t see the site, you can’t procrastinate.
The biggest social networking platform in the world is also one of the most visited sites on the internet. Even after having experienced something of a nosedive in terms of the number of active users, Facebook has still retained billions of users. The platform’s demographics have shifted, it is now catering to an older audience more than the young people who propelled the platform into the limelight.
Facebook continues to be one of the biggest distractions in the lives of users of all ages. If you are a Facebook junkie who can’t go more than an hour without checking in to see what’s new, blocking Facebook during work hours could be transformative for your productivity and efficiency.
YouTube
The internet’s biggest, and many would argue best, repository of cat-based video content (and some other stuff as well) has been stealing the lives of users for more than a decade now. In that time, YouTube has undergone a number of structural changes and it is no longer just a place to upload and share videos.
Since being bought by Google, YouTube has added a range of social and other features that give users a reason to visit the platform other than watching videos. This has made YouTube increasingly liable to eat up your time. Many an innocent soul has opened YouTube just to find some background noise to work to, only to find themselves falling down an ASMR rabbit hole. Blocking YouTube entirely is the only way to resist its charms.
When Jack Dorsey first had the idea for Twitter, he envisaged a website where users exchanged short messages with one another, inspired by the image of nesting birds all chirping and tweeting into the ether. Looking at Twitter today, we can only guess as to what kind of forests Jack Dorsey frequents. It probably never occurred to him that two of those birds might be the leaders of nuclear-armed states who would use Twitter to compare the size of their nukes. If nothing else, Twitter will forever stand as undeniable proof that reality and satire are now entirely interchangeable.
Cracked
America’s oldest humor website, Cracked mastered the art of the listicle before they were even a thing. They’ve also been pioneers of clickbait and fact-based comedy (which is light on facts…and comedy). Love them or loathe them, Cracked has been successfully helping people waste time for decades now, first in print and now online.
Netflix
Just because you can watch Netflix at work, that doesn’t mean that you should. If you work from home, then you already know how dangerous a Netflix subscription can be to productivity. How quickly “looking for some background noise” changes to “binging 4 seasons without a bathroom break.”
Instagram provides a safe space, a refuge for users whose parents have joined Facebook. There are more photos and less pseudoscience, extremist politics, and general hate than you get with Facebook. It still kills your productivity, though.
Reddit is a social media platform for people who hate social media. It’s also a social media platform for people who like irony. And vegans. There are a lot of vegans. It’s far too easy to fall into a Reddit rabbit hole, and when you do, getting out is like trying to escape a black hole (which is more or less what Reddit is).
CNN
Sometimes, you want to procrastinate but you also want to feel like a responsible adult – that’s what news websites are for. When you stop working to check the news, it doesn’t feel like a personal failing in the way that blowing off work to watch videos of dogs dreaming does. CNN is the most popular news website in the US, but you can substitute it for whatever your preferred outlet is.
Buzzfeed
As an entity, Buzzfeed is just confusing. It has somehow managed to combine genuinely important and hard-hitting journalism with some of the most irritating, low-effort clickbait titles ever written (#3 will shock you!) We would advise steering well clear of Buzzfeed when you need to be productive.
Tumblr
A few years ago, Tumblr was one of the biggest social networking platforms on the internet. Then they got rid of all the porn. Now, Tumblr is…actually, we don’t know. It’s a microblogging service, kind of. In any case, trust us, there is nothing but distraction contained within.
Once you have identified the websites that are causing you the most issues with your productivity, it is simple to restrict your access to them. Luckily, there are tools you can use to easily set your own schedule, ensuring that websites are blocked during the workday. This simple act can cause your productivity to soar.
