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Running blocks longer than 24 hours
Read this closely. If you do it wrong, SelfControl will not launch.
By default, SelfControl will not allow you to run a block for longer than 24 hours. This is for your own good: if you run a long block, you will probably realize, about 3 days into your year-long block, that oops you accidentally blocked one website you really need. SelfControl does not have an undo button - if you start a long block, you are stuck with it until the timer runs out. If you're sure you really need a longer block, test it first for 24 hours, then run it for longer only if it worked great in that 24-hour period.
To adjust the maximum block duration, open Terminal.app in Applications --> Utilities, then enter the following commands (substituting the words in brackets with numbers). Press enter after each line. The exact commands vary by SelfControl version:
defaults write org.eyebeam.SelfControl MaxBlockLength -int [maximum block length in minutes]So, for example, to change it to a month-long maximum block, you could use:
defaults write org.eyebeam.SelfControl MaxBlockLength -int 43200defaults write org.eyebeam.SelfControl MaxBlockLength -int [maximum block length in minutes]
defaults write org.eyebeam.SelfControl BlockLengthInterval -int [block length interval in minutes]So, for example, to change it to a month-long maximum block with intervals at each day, you could use:
defaults write org.eyebeam.SelfControl MaxBlockLength -int 43200
defaults write org.eyebeam.SelfControl BlockLengthInterval -int 1440If you made a typo in the above commands and messed up your settings, use this Terminal command (while SelfControl is closed) to reset your SelfControl settings:
defaults delete org.eyebeam.SelfControlThe above command does not remove a running SelfControl block. It only resets settings like MaxBlockLength.
These methods were not created by the SelfControl authors, and are not officially supported. We provide this information only as a courtesy - use these tools at your own risk.
Karl James Pestka wrote an AppleScript to automate SelfControl. Information on it is on macosxhints.com.
Andreas Grill wrote a "small utility to schedule start and stop times of SelfControl" and it's available on github.