distractions

A command-line tool (and background service) for managing distractions with builtin pomodoro mode.

SYNOPSIS
    distractions [on|off|toggle|status|background|clock|pomodoro]

OPTIONS
    -f --file
        Path to the distractions file. Needed for 'off' command
       --work-time
        Work time for pomodoro mode. Example values: '20m' '1h'. Default: 25m.
       --break-time
        Break time for pomodoro mode. Example values: 20m, 3m. Default: 5m
       --on-work
        Execute given script on starting to work
       --on-break
        Execute given script on break
       --json
        Format output as JSON. (Only implemented for clock command)
       --relative
        Format output as relative time. (Only implemented for clock command)

    -h --help
        Show help

Install

Clone and add it to $PATH

Setting up

Create a .distractions file in your home directory:

gmail.com
news.ycombinator.com
twitter.com
quora.com

Start a background service as root, it needs write access to /etc/hosts;

$ sudo distractions background -f ~/.distractions

If preferred, you can define a system service;

Unit]
Description=Distractions

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=distractions background -f /home/azer/.distractions
User=root

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Usage

Once distractions is running on the background, you can call it by sending signals via the same distraction script;

$ distractions off

It'll add these lines to /etc/hosts:

# <distractions>
127.0.0.1 gmail.com
127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com
127.0.0.1 twitter.com
127.0.0.1 quora.com
# </distractions>

You can turn them on if needed, so they'll be removed from /etc/hosts

$ distractions on

Check if it's on/off:

$ distractions status

Pomodoro

Run clock command to see how many minutes has passed since you've turned off distractions;

$ distractions clock
00:08 Work

Run pomodoro command if you prefer switching work/break mode automatically:

$ distractions pomodoro
Starting Pomodoro.
Starting work-mode.

By default, work is 25 minutes and break is 5 minutes. You can customize that;

$ distractions pomodoro --work-time 15m --break-time 3m

You can set custom scripts to be executed when work/break mode starts:

$ distractions pomodoro --on-work ~/start-work.sh --on-break ~/start-break.sh

If desired, you can define a system service for pomodoro mode so you can control it easily;

Description=Pomodoro

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=distractions pomodoro --on-work /home/azer/.pomodoro/start-work.sh --on-break /home/azer/.pomodoro/start-break.sh
Environment=DISPLAY=:0
Environment=XAUTHORITY=%h/.Xauthority
Environment=DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
User=azer

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Note that this service runs as non-root user, in contrast to the background service.