The Monitor Curtain: A Distraction Blocker

Mark says on January 18th, 2007 at 8:18 am

What about just using the monitor’s off switch?

Joan M.Mas says on January 18th, 2007 at 8:43 am

You don’t need extra hardware for this. You can simply install and use a tiny application such as JDarkroom. See a description and illustration with links here: http://gtdrawings.blogspot.com.....iting.html

jonathan peterson says on January 18th, 2007 at 8:50 am

I assume the problem is that he’s using iTunes or something and you can’t turn the monitor off on an iMac without turning off the machine?

Even so, surely you could have a black screensaver background?

Steve says on January 18th, 2007 at 10:00 am

Having something covering my display would trigger my curiosity more than not. And having something this ugly would make me wad it up and throw it away.

I use the blank screen saver, and on Windows I hit Window Key-D to minimize all my applications so I can only see my relaxing desktop photo.

Noel says on January 18th, 2007 at 10:05 am

There’s a button on the monitor or in your computer that say’s “Power Off” or “Off”. But whatever works for you. I just think it’s more time consuming and ridiculous to create your little monitor curtain than just go over to your monitor and hit the off switch.

Adrian says on January 18th, 2007 at 12:02 pm

Or unplug the monitor from the back if the on/off switch is too tempting

nunya says on January 18th, 2007 at 12:46 pm

Just set the screensaver to 10 seconds and “blank”

Brett (inkedmn) says on January 18th, 2007 at 3:56 pm

Forgive my late arrival to the party, I just saw that my picture had been picked up by lifehack!

I actually have (what I consider to be) a good reason for doing this versus using an application to stop me from using the computer, which I outlined here: http://blog.crankingwidgets.co.....ly-review/

As far as turning the monitor off, the power switch on this monitor controls the Mac to which it is attached, so that’s not an option (also discussed in the above article).

Thanks, Leon!

david says on January 18th, 2007 at 5:00 pm

All I can say is ‘wow’….I just lost a nice bit of respect for you all…

If you can’t turn your monitor off, kick the brightness/contrast down, set a blank screen saver, or set your desktop to black, minimize all programs and hide the icons, then just throw a darn sheet over your computer…instead of
“oh gosh, look, we can make a nifty little paper and metal thing to cover my computer screen! kewl!!!!”

Wow…

Leon says on January 18th, 2007 at 5:48 pm

@Brett, thanks for your sharing. It is quite an interesting idea, and very “hackish” as I said ;)

@Nunya, The more effort you need to spend to remove the obstacle, the more efficient it is to block the distraction. For screensaver he could just move his mouse to check for any new mail.

@David, every idea is an idea. It would be still good to show some respect on people’s idea and understand people’s motive.

Zwergner says on January 19th, 2007 at 1:24 am

You know what works wonderfully and requires no “hacking”? A shirt :D

Steve says on January 20th, 2007 at 4:14 am

(I tried posting this to the source blog, but the captcha image was broken for me)

If the point was to create an obstacle to using the computer, I don’t see why turning it off (or at least putting it to sleep) is not an option. Resuming or booting up the system is certainly a non-trivial obstacle to keep you from using your computer casually.

My other question: What do you do with it when you’re done? Do you crumple it up and make a new one each time?

Stica says on January 20th, 2007 at 5:31 pm

Use the contrast swich on your monitor. Turn it to 0. From now on you’ll have image on it but you won’t see a thing.