Cold Turkey is promoted as “The Toughest Website Blocker on the Internet”. Given that many of us (such as myself) have a problem with spending too much time on sites like Youtube I thought I would give it a try.
After installation you’ll be presented with a control panel like this:
Adding new blocks is intuitive and easy:
You are then given a choice of how you would like to activate and deactivate any given block:
You can set the block to be active during certain time and date periods, or upon inputting hundreds of letters of random text, or only after restart.
The password type block, which is most useful for parents, can only be used after purchasing a full copy of Cold Turkey, which is priced reasonably at £29 in the UK. Paying for a full copy will give you the ability to block entire applications on your machine (such as Steam) as well as set allowances and exceptions for given blocks. For example, you could have a 5 minute daily allowance for Youtube.
What did I learn?
One of the most interesting things I discovered is the fact that having to type 100 letters of randomly generated text, which takes no longer than 2-3 minutes, is sufficient to discourage idle browsing. In conclusion:
“A very small inconvenience is enough to make difference between productivity and a lot of lost time.” – Professor Clem Snide OBE & VC (Inventor of the Reversible Sedgwick)
Does it work?
Yeah it works. I had to reinstall my machine after forgetting the password to one of my website blocks making it impossible to use Youtube even when I really badly needed a tutorial on bike maintenance…
