Create Script to Disallow Mac Usage at Night

automationmacmacos

I want to stop watching too much pornography at night. It'd be useful if I were to create a script to automatically turn off my Mac at 11:00 PM and keep it turned off until 7:00 AM. If I power the computer on at any time between 11 o'clock and 7 o'clock, it should immediately shut itself down again. I also want disabling the script to be difficult to prevent myself from easily bypassing it to watch porn. How do I create this program?

Best Answer

This is what Parental Controls can be used for.

You can set the times where you can and cannot use the computer. The caveat is that you cannot be an Admin so you will need to give the reins of control over to a trusted person.

That said, Parental Controls is just one avenue and you cannot rely on tech to address an issue like this.

I say this with the utmost sincerity and with nothing else than the stated goal of seeing you helped:

This is symptomatic of an addictive behavioral disorder and can be something that is very difficult to overcome. In addition to the tech blocks, I highly suggest you seek out a licensed therapist.

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I'm not sure how to prevent the creation of the credentials in the first place, but you can remove items from the Keychain using the security command, which is easily scriptable.

The command you want is security delete-internet-password -s server, where server is the hostname or address of the proxy server without the protocol (i.e. 192.168.0.1, not https://192.168.0.1). Alternatively you can use -l label to match the name of the keychain item, or various other search parameters, which you can find detailed on the man page.

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To add one Desktop Space to each monitor/display:

do shell script "/Applications/Mission\\ Control.app/Contents/MacOS/Mission\\ Control"
delay 0.5
tell application "System Events" to click (every button whose value of attribute "AXDescription" is "add desktop") of group 1 of process "Dock"
delay 0.5
do shell script "/Applications/Mission\\ Control.app/Contents/MacOS/Mission\\ Control 1"

One can modify the code to add more desktops.

To switch to a particular desktop / fullscreen app in a dual display setting, e.g. Desktop 3:

do shell script "/Applications/Mission\\ Control.app/Contents/MacOS/Mission\\ Control"
delay 0.5
try
    tell application "System Events" to click (first button whose value of attribute "AXDescription" is "exit to Desktop 3") of list 1 of group 1 of process "Dock"
on error
    tell application "System Events" to click (first button whose value of attribute "AXDescription" is "exit to Desktop 3") of list 2 of group 1 of process "Dock"

end try

There are discussions out there about turning an app to fullscreen mode with script.

Best Answer

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