How to avoid being sucked into Wikipedia?

I figure that MetaFilter is full of people who have this problem. (http://ask.metafilter.com/152546/How-to-avoid-being-sucked-into-Wikipedia) You betcha. I haven't tried it with Wikipedia, but with most things, I use http://www.instapaper.com/, which gives you a little bookmarklet that says "Read Later." They have an iPhone app (and there's Instafetch for Android phones). Whenever I find myself falling down the rabbit hole, I hit the bookmarklet which saves it to Instapaper. Instafetch automatically downloads the article to my phone so I can read it later on a subway ride or somesuch (this also means I don't need web access once the app has synced to read articles).

Bah, I came here to suggest Instapaper. That really helps curb my "oh, shiny!" method of Internet trawling when I need to focus.

If you're using Firefox, you could use https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/4476 to only allow you 15 minutes of Wikipedia every day, or 5 minutes every hour, or whatever. Once you exceed that limit, you can't visit any new clicks on the site.

The only way I've found to do this is to have two computers: a desktop on a proper desk with a comfortable chair in front of it, and a laptop on a milk crate next to an insufficiently filled beanbag. The laptop is connected to the Internet, but I do not allow myself to take a live ethernet cable within 5 metres of the desktop. Needless to say, anytime I want to get something done I head for the comfortable chair.

If you're trying to change your behavior, you could use multiple browsers to encourage new patterns in your work method. When you're going to look something up on Wikipedia, open a different browser with the intention that once you've looked up that specific thing, you'll close the browser and go back to your other application, or primary browser you're working in. This might help you associate going to Wikipedia with opening a new browser, and create a new habit to help you reform your current one. If you want to save the tabs for later, just go to the "Bookmarks" menu in Firefox and choose "Bookmark All Tabs." The window that comes up will allow you to make a new folder where you can keep those tabs until you're ready to come back to them.

Just tested Instapaper with the Lesbianism in Erotica article from the xkcd cartoon, and it seems to work just fine (some sites don't play well with Instapaper because of how it strips out formatting, but Wikipedia doesn't seem to be one of them). I should note that you don't have to use Instapaper with a phone—you can use it in your browser, too. As for saving all tabs at once, I don't know of a way to do that for Instapaper in Firefox, but there is http://brettterpstra.com/2010/03/08/save-safari-tabs-to-instapaper/, so I'm sure it's possible.

This happens to me with TVTropes, the most brain-suckingest rabbit hole on the internet. But I've finally managed to keep myself from going too deep into it at any given time by a very simple guideline: I only let myself open up three tabs at a time when I'm in information absorption mode. If I'm on a page, I can only click on two links from that page while I'm still reading it, and I can't do more than quickly glance at another tab until I'm done reading the first one. This causes me to prioritize and cull the irrelevant or tertiary links right away, and makes me commit more to the primary topic at hand. Every tab must get closed after I'm done reading it - if it needs to be revisited, I'll bookmark it. I've found that the more invested I am in the specific topic, the less I go spelunking for all sorts of random information, and I end up spending less time over all but with a higher level of comprehension.

I've been training myself to listen to that little nagging voice that says "Maybe I should close this browser window." Basically, make it a habit to always listen to that voice -- don't make excuses, don't wait until you're finished reading whatever you're reading, say goodbye to those other tabs that you'll never get to. It sounds like a stupid suggestion, but it's actually been working reasonably well for me. Habit can be a powerful force where willpower fails. The trick, of course, is that you need to force yourself to do it a few times do that it eventually becomes a habit, rather than a naked effort of will ... but it can be done. The other trick is to use this strategy in conjunction with stuff like Instapaper, https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/3145, or whatever. Technical solutions are useful and valuable, but in my experience, if you don't also make that mental effort, you will find yourself ignoring or circumventing them. Likewise, mental effort alone won't work, especially in the early stages when you're trying to build it up into a habit. (I've also experimented with disabling tabbed browsing, but I found that doing so made it too difficult to do my job. YMMV.)

Edit your router to redirect your requests for wikipedia to some shock site.