Blueprint: Website Blocking Extension
Staying productive in the modern web is a continuous struggle. There are a myriad of websites available to steal your time, and it's becoming a real problem of mine. Stuck in the perpetual loop of YouTube videos or Reddit posts, I have become enslaved.
Over the past few years I have endeavoured to find a suitable solution to fit my needs. BlockSite, StayFocusd, and other long-forgotten extensions have encompassed my workflow. But there are inherent issues with all of them that I would like to describe briefly.
Problem
- It is hard to quit cold turkey on websites that you have been utilizing day and night. I should still be allowed to surf them occasionally, without having to disable the extension or unblock the website from the panel.
- These websites still have valuable information to offer. Reddit is a great source for offering up solutions to my problems. YouTube has some great content for computer science and other similar subjects. If I block those sites, then I can't access the content.
While my solution is not eloquent in the least, I certainly believe it will increase my productivity while allowing my mind to wander onto those "blocked" applications occasionally.
Solution
The websites will be divided into two different categories: "Intermittent" and "Permanent". You will be able to move the websites between the categories as you make the transition to total permanency.
Intermittent
There will be a user-defined timer. The timer will be set to 20 minutes by default. These "blocked" websites will remain blocked until you click the icon in the toolbar. This will grant you 20 minutes (user-defined) of freedom to browse these websites. These would typically be the applications you want to keep blocked unless you really want the option to check them, i.e. Outlook/G-mail, Reddit, etc.
Permanent
These websites do NOT change state when the icon has been clicked. These will stay blocked so that you may not happen to roam onto them while you are intermittently browsing. You don't want to take the risk going back on these sites, think New York Times, or whatever takes up majority of your time.