3 Ways to Block Websites for Studying (Mac & Windows)

A Mac or Windows PC can greatly boost our productivity both for studying and working, we can utilize all kinds of programs or online resources to serve for our purposes. However, distracted website is always standing in the way to keep us focused and productive while studying.

To block websites for studying, there are 3 options: use dedicated website blocker, manually set in browsers and add extensions to browsers, no matter you want to temporarily block certain websites while studying, or want to block websites for studying on Mac or Windows PC.

 

#1 Best Websites Blocker for Studying

The easiest way to block websites for studying is using a professional website blocker. Such an app can block certain websites during the time periods when you want to stay focused on studying.

Benefits of Using Website Blocker

• Easy to set up
• Block specific websites
• Block all websites except a few
• Hard to bypass
• Easy to schedule the blocking

For both Mac and Windows users, here we recommend as in following parts.

Best Websites Blocker for Studying on Mac

Cisdem Focus for Mac blocks distracting websites and apps when you want to concentrate on your studying task. Just tell this website blocker what websites distract you and when you want to block them.

Main Features of Cisdem Focus

• Block specific websites and pages
• Block categories of websites
• Block all websites except a few
• Also block apps
• Blocking starts when your focus time starts
• Offer 4 ways to plan your focus time: Quick Start, Pomodoro, Block as Scheduled and Launch Limit
• Provide the Hardcore mode and the Password mode
• Easy to use

Steps to Temporarily Block Certain Websites for Studying on Mac

1. Download and install Cisdem Focus on your Mac.

Free Download

2. Create a focus plan by clicking the plus icon in the corner.

3. Under the Web Block tab, add websites to block for your focus plan.

4. Start your focus plan by choosing the option that you need.

Websites will be blocked once the focus plan starts, helping you minimize distractions when you study.

To prevent yourself from unblocking websites by stopping a focus plan, you can enable the Hardcore mode in Preferences.

Best Websites Blocker for Studying on Windows PC

Cold Turkey Pro is a Windows program allowing users to block applications and websites with its Timer. Also users can set a schedule to block apps, websites or entire internet as needed.

Main Features of Cold Turkey

• Block apps
• Block websites
• Block entire Internet
• Block website temporarily using Timer
• Keep track of activities on Mac

Steps to Temporarily Block Certain Websites on Windows

1. Download and install Cold Turkey on Windows PC
2. Go to Block Lists, add the URL for the websites you want to block, then click “Save”.
3. Go to Timers, set for Block Until and Breaks for the added website lists.
   Also, you can go to Schedule, to set the blocking as needed.
4. Once the blocking is enabled, you will see following page when open the blocked websites while studying.

#2 Block Websites while Studying in Browsers

Also, you can directly block websites while studying in browsers. Since most of us are using Google Chrome, Safari or Firefox, here we list all 3 tutorials as following to easily block certain websites.

Google Chrome (Mac & Windows)

To block websites in Google Chrome while studying, we will need to install an extension tool Block Site. It ranks as the top 1 in Google Chrome Web Store, with a pretty high rating 4.5/5 from millions of users. It is always under active update to meet our needs.

Steps to Block Websites for Studying in Google Chrome

1. Go to the extension BlockSite.
2. Click “Add to Chrome” to install the extension.
3. Then add the website URL and click “+” to save. To remove the blocked websites, click the “+” to delete.
4. Also, you can click on Schedule on the top right of the page to set us as needed.
5. Once ready, you can open the blocked website in Google Chrome and won’t be allowed to access to.

Firefox (Mac & Windows)

If you are using Firefox to open and visit webpages, you can also use add-ons to block certain websites in Firefox while studying. The add-ons to work as a website blocker in Firefox is Block Site by Ray. It is highly recommended with a 4.6-star rating and many of its users wrote quite objective & positive reviews.

Steps to Block Websites while Studying in Firefox

1. Go to Block Site.
2. Then click “Add to Firefox” to install the add-ons to your browser.
3. Open the website you want to block in Firefox, e.g. YouTube.
4. Under the YouTube page, click on the add-on as following, then click “OK” to block certain websites for studying in Firefox.
5. Once ready, you won’t be allowed to access to the blocked websites. To unblock the websites, click on the “Remove Blocking” at the right bottom.

Safari (Mac)

To block specific websites in Safari while studying, you can use the Parental Controls that comes with macOS, it allows users to open and block specific websites for different users on the same Mac. Even it offers abundant features to help you kids to use the mac in a healthy way as you expect.

Steps to block websites while studying in Safari

1. Click Apple Icon>System Preferences.
2. Choose Parental Controls.
3. Click the lock icon and enter your mac password to unlock for changes.
4. Select the user account you want to block websites for, go to Web>Try to limit access to adult websites.
5. Go to “Never allow these websites”, click “+” to add the website URL you want to block while studying. Then click “OK”.

#3 Block Websites for Studying with Hosts Files

Another method to block websites for studying is to modify the hosts files on your Mac or Windows PC, this may seems to be quite complicated and require high on IT technology, but it is not. You can follow the steps listed as below to block certain websites while studying with hosts files.

Block Websites for Studying with Hosts File on Mac

1. Go to Finder>Terminal.
2. Paste “sudo nano /etc/hosts” to Terminal as following.
3. Press “Enter”, you will see following interface.
4. Then directly enter your mac password and press “Enter”. 
5.  Go to the end of the host list, copy and paste “127.0.0.1” in a new line, input the website name you want to block. 
6. Once you have added all blocked website URL, press Control+O to save the host file.
7. Then press Control+X to exit.

Block Websites for Studying with Host File on Windows PC

1. Go to Windows>System32>drivers>etc and find the hosts file.
2. Then open the host file with Notepad or other HTML editor.
3. Go to the end of the file, enter “127.0.0.1 localhost” first.
4. Then add the websites you want to block in the format “127.0.0.1 website name” in new lines.
5. Once ready, save the file in Notepad.

Conclusion

There are more options to block websites while studying on Mac or on Windows. But the best way to temporarily block websites for studying on a schedule s always using a dedicated website blocker with needed features, it is once for all and make everything simple but efficient.

If you have other recommendations to block websites while studying, please share with us in following comments.