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.