Staying focused is harder than ever these days
We know you have work to do. And we know that the internet provides unlimited distractions. Whether you’re lurking on your ex’s Facebook wall, perusing celebrity gossip blogs, or browsing YouTube for videos of cats engaging in all manner of hilarious activities, there will always be opportunities to procrastinate by surfing the web.
You need help tearing yourself away from Reddit, Facebook, Pinterest, and all those other amusing but less-than-productive sites. Enter Timewarp, a Google Chrome extension designed to help you spend less time on distracting websites.
When you install Timewarp, an icon of a tiny rocket will appear next to your URL bar. Whenever you find yourself wasting away the day absorbed in a website that has absolutely nothing to do with your work project, simply click the rocket to set one of three “wormholes.”
Redirect yourself in advance
One wormhole can make your browser automatically redirect you from a distracting site to a more productive one as soon as you type in the URL. You specify which site you want to be redirected to.
The “quote” wormhole brings up a motivational quote that you type out in advance—something to remind you that you can’t afford to procrastinate, and to encourage you to get back to work. Timewaarp suggests “you may delay, but time will not.”
Add a dash of timer, and bingo, you’re productive again!
Lastly, Timewarp also includes a timer so you can track exactly how much time you spend on a site, down to the second. You might be all the more motivated to get back to work once you can see just how many minutes you are wasting. You can leave the distracting website up and switch to another tab or app – the timer will pause until you resume your procrastinating.
The timer can be combined with the redirect or quote wormhole so that you can wean yourself off addictive sites by allowing yourself to indulge within a specified daily time limit.
Timewarp even acknowledges its own potential to distract, and allows you to turn off its social buttons, though they still hope that you’ll share Timewarp with your friends on your social networks.
Video demo of Timewarp
Timewarp is available in the Google Chrome web store.
#Timewarp
Ellen Vessels, a Staff Writer at The American Genius, is respected for their wide range of work, with a focus on generational marketing and business trends. Ellen is also a performance artist when not writing, and has a passion for sustainability, social justice, and the arts.