Prevent Procrastination With This Chrome Extension
Recently, I have found myself in a vicious circle. Whenever I have some free time, I usually go through the same outdated list of websites, sucking in any new content that comes up to relieve my boredom. I’ll be switching between Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and Gmail (and sometimes Slickdeals) in one big loop until I can finally remind myself that this is stupid and maybe I should go outside, take a walk or do something- Anything more productive from my day.
Thanks to the Chrome extension HabitLab, I was able to get rid of my borderline compulsive behavior. This is an experiment sponsored by Stanford University that offers many different rewards – some gentle, some not so much – so that you don’t get stuck on any websites that are getting too much of your attention and time. We’ve talked about this extension before , but I want to dig a little deeper to show why HabitLab is a digital lifesaver.
After installing the extension, you will be taken to a page with suggestions for websites that you might want to restrict. You can add any sites you want, but I love that the pre-filled offers also have a small counter underneath that estimates how much time you’ve spent on the specified sites. (Repeat to yourself: don’t look at the Facebook number. Don’t look at the Facebook number. Don’t …)
After you have selected the sites that you would like to be removed from your life, you will be asked to set the annoyance level of the extension. If you need the lightest touch possible to encourage you to stop checking the same sites all the time, an extension might just keep track of the time you spend on those sites. How simple it is. And if you need a lot of help, the extension will even go so far as to automatically close any of the selected sites after you leave them open for 60 seconds. Stop. View. Reddit.
In addition to the “extended aggression” option you choose, you can also enable other “nudges” to help you stay focused. And I love the buffet of options that HabitLab offers, which includes prompting you for how long you want to spend on the site as soon as you load it, GateKeeper, which makes you wait a few seconds before the site loads ( to dissuade you from continuing) and a “scroll freezer” that prevents you from doing this after one scroll is too much.
You can even try each of the nudges before enabling them if you want to see what they are doing before making a decision. If you’re a JavaScript savvy (or like copy and paste ), you can even create your own nudges to encourage you to get off your computer and do something else. For example, you can tell HabitLab to turn site content upside down if you really want to dissuade yourself from browsing.
Some nudges work differently for different sites. On Facebook, the extension can put gentle wasted time reminders right in your news feed so you don’t miss it. If you’re a big Twitter fanatic, HabitLab can hide your entire feed. The delay has been decided .
In the extension’s settings, you can also see how much time you spend on your “banned sites” over the course of seven days, as well as how effectively each one pushed you away from them. You can even set the extension to only turn on nudges during certain hours if you don’t care how much of your own time you spend but need to stay productive at work.