I believe that we are even not aware of our habits online. We are not aware of how much time we spend on social media and many other sites, which for a lot of us may simply be a waste of our time. We may have become so habitual that we simply open these sites without even reconsidering that decision at all. It has become as if we are obliged to do so. Here comes a really cool Chrome plugin that I have been using for the past few weeks and I am really content with it.
It comes with a preselected list of sites that may not be that much of importance to your day to day job. You can change the list of the sites added, by adding new or removing existing ones. If there is a particular website that is added in the list, but that you have not visited for a couple of days, you are even suggested to remove it entirely from this list because maybe you are not wasting so much time on it.
When you visit one of these sites, you will see a warning type of information that tells you the amount of time that has passed since your last visit to that site, and also asks you to drag a slider. The more you visit that particular site, the harder it will be for you to drag the slide until the end.
Another cool thing about this plugin is that it also tracks the time you have spent on the sites that are on the list and the more time you spend on them, you will start to see large visual rings that appear on the corner of your screen. They show you the time that you have spent on that site for that day and you also have the option to close all the tabs that you have opened on your site. The number of rings increases as you spend more time on that particular site.
Aside from these, it also comes with the option of removing NewsFeed and displaying Facebook notifications, which can be really helpful in helping you save up time from having to scroll aimlessly.
This may seem like something really simple, but it has really prevented me from visiting YouTube, or Gmail several times now. In actuality, I did not need to visit them. it was just something very habitual that I did not pay any second thought of whether that visit is worth my time or not.
It is very simple, but I believe, it is very effective. Of course, if you want to spend more time on a site, this simple nudge may not be sufficient to prevent you, but at least, you are going to be more aware of your behavior.
If this sounds interesting to you, I invite you to give it a try.
