website blocking which works long term

18 May, 2026

I've tried to block and delay unwanted websites, such as reddit, in many ways. Three things I've learned:

It's easy to temporarily bypass these blocks
There will inevitably be situation where you want to access blocked website
There is nothing more permanent than a temporary bypass

And once the block is disabled, my weak brain is back to scrolling.

So we don't want to blacklist websites like reddit, we want to increase the friction of using them, just enough to make it annoying. But not too much to blacklist the whole website, as it also contains genuinely useful stuff too.

The only working method I've found so far is to delay accessing the page. Every time I open a website I've determined is not good for me I have to wait 10 seconds. It's annoying enough to usually not want to use those sites at all. But not too annoying to prevent from using the site, when I have a good reason to. And 10 seconds is not too much to want to go and immediately bypass the block.

I do this with LeechBlock (best tool for stuff like this!)

Settings:

Enter domains you want to delay access to
Select the days on which to block these sites: all
Predefined URLs: Delaying Page
Delay access to sites by 10 seconds when delaying page is used
Block only first accessed page of when delaying/password page is used -> UNTICK, IMPORTANT *

*otherwise you can open reddit, wait 10 seconds, then browse it indefinitely without delying. By unticking, 10 second delay is shown every time the url changes.