Lockdowns to disables override capabilities when active?

[slepto]

I allow myself only 2 overrides in a given day, 30 minutes each. These overrides are kind of "precious" breaks I give myself--just enough to scratch the itch without allowing for overindulgence.

Blocksets can be set to be override-able or not override-able during lockdowns. This is excellent flexibility. In my case, lockdowns are there for a reason, and I prioritize them, so some of my blocks cannot be overridden during a lockdown.

During a lockdown, then, if I hit the override button, Leechblock will deduct one of my available overrides, but it is wasted because the blocksets are still locked down.

I request a toggle in settings that prevents any overrides from being initiated during a lockdown. If you try to initiate an override during a lockdown, you'd get a notice "there is an active lockdown. Wait until it's finished before using your override."

The current 'workaround' is that the user needs to manually keep track of how much time is left on an override, and avoid hitting the 'override' button until it's finished. It's doable, but seems like unnecessary cognitive burden.

Thanks for considering.

[slepto]

On second thought, I think my proposed solution was not optimal.

It's not so much the lockdown itself that should prevent an override, but it's whether or not a particular blockset is active (which could be either due to a regularly-scheduled interval or an override outside of normal operating times).

So I think i'd change my request:

Could each individual blockset get an additional toggle checkbox: "prevent overrides from being initiated when this blockset is active"? When the user tries to hit 'override', leechblock would check if any blocksets with this toggled on are currently active (regardless of reason) and if any are active, it would tell the user that he must wait until the blockset is no longer active before an override can be initiated.

I think this would be pretty helpful. For example, I just decided that i want to prevent overrides until noon, so my mornings can be devoted to focus. I can prevent overrides from working during morning hours, but I can't prevent myself from hitting the override button, which will still 'waste' one of my limited daily allowance of overrides.

Thanks again for considering!

[proginosko]

The workaround here, I think, would be to use two block sets: one for the morning period that doesn't allow overrides, and one for the rest of the day that does allow overrides. Right?

[slepto]

No, I think my post must not have been clear. I already use two blocksets in just the way you describe. It does prevent any override from taking place during the morning blockset. However, the issue I'm referring to is that even when a blockset cannot be overridden, if I hit the 'override' button, Leechblock doesn't check whether there are any override-able blocksets and deducts one from the daily allowance, which is wasted.

[slepto]

To be clearer, if someone hits 'override' during a time with only active blocksets that are not override-able, Leechblock 'counts' the override anyway, and there is one fewer override allowed for the remainder of the day. Even if the active blocksets do not allow overrides, and the user is not actually able to take advantage of the override. So ideally it wouldn't be 'counted'.

[proginosko]

Okay, I think I understand. The natural question then is: Why would you activate an override during the morning period, knowing that it won't have any effect and will waste one of your daily allowance? 🙂

I'm not trying to be difficult here. I'm just wondering why LB would be expected to protect against user error in this way.

[slepto]

I put this as an 'idea' section because I think it'd overall be an improvement to Leechblock, but it's not mission critical, nor is it a bug.

To me, it's more about reducing the cognitive load on a user than protecting against user error (though you could view it as both, or either of these).

My original request was not about regularly scheduled blocks of time like this morning scenario we just wrote about. These are indeed predictable and anyone would quickly learn not to accidentally try and use an override during these times. Originally, I was thinking about overrides. Overrides can be triggered on the fly, any time at all when the user wants to increase focus, and for any amount of time. Am I right that with today's Leechblock implementation, the correct steps would be for the user to start an external stopwatch or set an external alarm any time he initiates a lockdown, and then fight impulse and remember not to hit 'override' until the timer goes off?

I'm not trying to be unreasonably demanding, and thanks for saying you're not trying to be difficult. Just think this would be a quality of life improvement if/when there's developer bandwidth.

[slepto]

Is there a way to quickly check whether there are any active lockdowns? I could probably create a habit of doing that before trying to get an override

[proginosko]

Is there a way to quickly check whether there are any active lockdowns? I could probably create a habit of doing that before trying to get an override

Yes, go to the Statistics page. (Sorry for the delay in replying!)