Best Software For Fighting Procrastination And Internet Addiction

Paul Nixer

10 Sep 2022 — 4 min read

Procrastination is a serious problem for most internet users since Internet has become cheap and available to all. Addictive page ranking algorithms make procrastination more dangerous 'cause services like Facebook, TikTok, YouTube want you to spend more and more free time 'cause more ads means more revenue. It generally feels like "digital hunger", "oh, I missed something!!!", can be also searching for relaxation, hot feelings, "not yet known useful stuff" or just an escape from personal problems into better, problem-free, warm place on Internet.

DNS

Centralization. Sometimes it's a bad word, sometimes good. Programmers trying to decentralize their services for better stability by "don’t put all your eggs in one basket" principle.

DNS can filter out all garbage from devices located in:

home
office
organization
school

And more, just set up your devices to use a DNS server you like. Some services like OpenDNS allow custom domain blocking, in popular DNS services like Cloudflare and CleanBrowsing is possible to choose presets like standard protection and family filters.

StevenBlack/hosts

This nice repository merges several hosts and remove duplicates. Probably the most valuable asset are host categories:

adware plus malware
fake news
gambling
porn
social

You can also generate custom hosts files, check the guide here. Permanently blocking adware/malware/gambling/porn make sense, but cutting out social - definitely not always. Facebook and Netflix on working hours are evil, unblocking them on evening should not destroy the working schedule. Build several lists and rotate them regularly will be more useful, something like this:

Morning
Lunch
Evening
Weekend
Holidays

Customization matters and this is exactly the case.

serverless-dns

serverless dns

Want to block ads, porn, gambling and tracking permanently?
"Self-hosted, pi-hole esque, DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) and DNS-over-TLS (DoT) resolver."

It's super easy to start and configure it, can also be hosted on a PaaS Free Tier or locally.

$ git clone https://github.com/serverless-dns/serverless-dns.git
$ cd serverless-dns
$ ./run n

We're set! Time to set up the block lists, configuration available at https://example.com/configure. Personal block lists are not supported yet.
The service is also available as Android application.

Pi-Hole

Pi-Hole screenshot

Very powerful application, a "dark hole for internet advertisers". Designed for dedicated home devices like Raspberry Pi, but can be deployed on a server too - supports several Linux distributions and the docker image is also available. After setup Pi-Hole should be used as default DNS server, for mobile connection recommended to use VPN 'cause changing DNS to Pi-Hole server can be tricky. Main features: