Quit social media Cold Turkey

Social media and other addictive sites like Reddit, Failblog and eBay can be tremendous time sucks. You can tell yourself that you’re just going to check Facebook for a minute, but that can easily turn into 10 minutes or more if you’re not careful. There are lots of apps to help you stop procrastination, but you may require extra help staying focused when you’re actually sitting at your computer. That’s where Cold Turkey comes in. This open source program blocks distracting websites to keep you focused on your work.

The free version of Cold Turkey blocks any website you want for as little as 10 minutes or up to seven days. It doesn’t block programs, though. For less than five dollars, you can get the premium version which blocks programs and allows you to block sites for up to 30 days. This is helpful for those who use services like HootSuite or Tweetdeck to manage social media accounts. The program comes with a preloaded list of sites, but you can add any site you wish to the block list.

Cold Turkey allows you to concentrate on your work with fewer distractions. The program works computer wide, affecting all browsers. It can’t be stopped easily, so if you change your mind, you’re just out of luck for the duration of the block period you specify. The developer says that there are ways to stop the program, but you’d need to know more about computers than the average user in order to work your way around it. Unsuccessful attempts at turning it off will result in being blocked from the selected sites for seven days. So you’d better be sure when you hit that block button.

Sorry Mac users, Cold Turkey program is only available for Windows. Not to worry, though, the developer of Cold Turkey recommends SelfControl for Macs. Similar programs for blocking distracting websites include Rescue Time and Minutes Please.

Image courtesy of author via screenshot.