The name is inspired by (read “shamelessly ripped off of”) Randall Monroe’s blog post here, while the idea is similar in spirit but different in implementation. Randall implemented his system simply by physically shutting down his computer. It’s a nifty idea, and seems like it would probably work, if only I didn’t have so many excuses for not trying it. My problem is more that I sometimes get sucked into reading more and more about something that is really interesting that never ends! Until I’ve been reduced to a husk, a shell of my former self. Well, I have the other problem too.
Anyway, what I want and have not been able to find exactly is a Chrome extension that will regulate how much time I can spend on the web at one time. Not total for one day, and not limited to blacklisted websites. I want for a timer to trip when I have been reading any sites (possibly excluding whitelisted sites from the timer) for XX minutes and for the extension to block all sites after that for YY minutes. The YY minutes is similar to the delay in Randall’s system, but since it is an involuntary interruption rather than a delay inserted between action and reward, it isn’t the same thing and will most likely not have the same effects. Like I said above, my worst problem is that once I’ve started reading something I can’t stop.
Actually, some Pomodoro extensions do almost this, but they require manually clicking the timer to switch states. I actually use the Strict Workflow extension, and it works great—when I remember and am in the mood to click it to start the timer. And anyway, it’s backward to what I want, which is something that will let me get on the web, give me enough time to make progress on something (if I’m doing research etc) and then kick me off to pull me out of the Wikipedia vortex (oh, Wikipedia).
Testing. This will mostly involve using it for a while and seeing if I encounter any bugs. After using it for a while I may add it to the Chrome Web Store.
All files copyright © 2013 Joseph Irwin unless specifically stated otherwise.
This software is distributed under the terms of the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for the text of the license.
src/widgets.css is included from the Chromium browser source code.
Copyright © 2012 The Chromium Authors. See CHROMIUM_LICENSE for the license.