A simple bash script that makes it a breeze to block distracting websites.
brew tap mhgbrg/homebrew-tap
brew install blk
To block websites blk adds a line to the computer's hosts file that redirects the website to localhost. Depending on the permissions on your hosts file, you might need to run the script with sudo. If you don't want to use sudo, you can change the permissions of the hosts file with chmod 646 /etc/hosts so that your user gets permission to write (this makes using the script so much more convenient).
Also make sure you have enabled the atrun daemon if you want to use automatic blocking/unblocking. See requirements for more info.
To block a few websites:
blk block news.ycombinator.com www.facebook.com www.youtube.com
Since this is the most common action, the block keyword can be omitted:
blk news.ycombinator.com www.facebook.com www.youtube.com
To unblock:
blk unblock news.ycombinator.com www.facebook.com www.youtube.com
You can also block/unblock for a limited time period:
blk news.ycombinator.com for 2 hours
Or until a specific time:
blk news.ycombinator.com until 21:00
To view all blocked and temporary unblocked websites, use the list command:
blk list
To unblock all currently blocked websites, use the unblock command with the all parameter:
blk unblock all
You can also block all websites in a predefined file by using the block command with the all parameter:
blk block all
Or simply blk all (since block can be omitted). This command reads sites from the file ~/.blk-list. If you want to use a different file, set the environment variable BLK_LIST to its path. For example, putting export BLK_LIST=~/.distracting-websites.txt in your .bashrc or .zshrc will make the above command use ~/.distracting-websites.txt:
You can also feed sites to blk through stdin, for example:
echo "news.ycombinator.com" | blk
blk < ~/.distracting-websites.txt
To use blk you need to have bash installed. I would recommend updating to the latest version if you haven't.
To use the for and until functionality you need to have the at command installed and working. On macOS at is installed per default, but the atrun daemon is not running. To fix this, run launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.atrun.plist and restart your computer (see man atrun for more info).