Hi Dan,
Thanks for this update on tools to minimize wasting time, usually unintentionally. Dr. Chrisoula Andreou (University of Utah) has labeled this approach "creative commitment devices." Being able to tell Google to "cut you off" for a period of time, commits you to an action much like an automatic deposit to savings from your pay cheque might commit you to the action of saving (despite your desire to spend now instead).

Readers interested in Dr. Andreou's work can check out to entries on the "Don't Delay" blog as you noted above. Specifically, these are: Intransitive Preference Structures: The Procrastination Trap and Second-Order Procrastination: Another inconvenient truth for Climate Change.

I think anyone interested in the Google tool should read both. The first to understand why this works. The second to understand how you still might undermine its use (i.e., you could procrastinate on changing the settings you noted above).

cheers,
tim

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