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Show HN: I made a Chrome extension to stop mindless browsing

getintention.com

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Re: Show HN: I made a Chrome extension to stop mindless browsing

#2

Post by namuorg »

Hey HN,

I've been working on a Chrome/Firefox extension called Intention to help me stay focused and not get distracted, and for me and my friends, we've found it more effective than other tools we've tried.

The idea behind it is extremely simple: Commit to a time limit before using a distracting site.

This prevents the two most common ways that we get sucked into distractions online:

1. Habitual navigation: Throughout the day, we reflexively type t/f/r and immediately start scrolling through Twitter / Facebook / Reddit / etc. Intention stops you before you start browsing and gives you the opportunity to decide not to get sucked in.

2. Mindless browsing: Our willpower is no match for the endless stream of personalized content optimized to keep our attention for as long as possible. Intention pauses your browsing after your intended time limit and restores your focus.

You can set a daily limit to know how much time you've spent across all distracting sites, and for every day you stay under your limit, you'll grow your personal streak.

I designed Intention with privacy as a core priority, and here's what that means:

- Intention requests access only to the sites you select, not all sites.

- Intention gives you full control over the data you share.

- Your browsing history stays in your browser and is never transmitted.

Intention is part of a suite of tools I'm developing to help people spend their time well, and I'd love to hear your feedback.

DK

P.S. If you'd like to read about the process behind developing Intention, I've been publicly writing a daily journal at https://roadtoramen.com

Re: Show HN: I made a Chrome extension to stop mindless browsing

#3

Post by mattwad »

namuorg wrote: post #2

Hey HN, I've been working on a Chrome/Firefox extension called Intention to help me stay focused and not get distracted, and for me and my friends, we've found it more effective than other tools we've tried. The idea behind it is extremely simple: Commit to a time limit before using a distracting site. This prevents the two most common ways that we get sucked into distractions online: 1. Habitual navigation: Througho…

I really like this idea! The setup was also very easy too and honest about permissions (using Firefox). I 'enabled' Hacker News for 5 minutes so i could leave you a comment :)

Next I need this for my phone.

Re: Show HN: I made a Chrome extension to stop mindless browsing

#4

Post by namuorg »

mattwad wrote: post #3
namuorg wrote: post #2

Hey HN, I've been working on a Chrome/Firefox extension called Intention to help me stay focused and not get distracted, and for me and my friends, we've found it more effective than other tools we've tried. The idea behind it is extremely simple: Commit to a time limit before using a distracting site. This prevents the two most common ways that we get sucked into distractions online: 1. Habitual navigation: Througho…

I really like this idea! The setup was also very easy too and honest about permissions (using Firefox). I 'enabled' Hacker News for 5 minutes so i could leave you a comment :) Next I need this for my phone.

Yay! Honored you'd spend part of your daily limit to leave me a comment. :)

Intention actually works on Firefox for Android so you can use it on Android today! Planning to build something special for iOS (the OS limitations make it challenging) in the future.

Re: Show HN: I made a Chrome extension to stop mindless browsing

#5

Post by hjek »

namuorg wrote: post #2

Hey HN, I've been working on a Chrome/Firefox extension called Intention to help me stay focused and not get distracted, and for me and my friends, we've found it more effective than other tools we've tried. The idea behind it is extremely simple: Commit to a time limit before using a distracting site. This prevents the two most common ways that we get sucked into distractions online: 1. Habitual navigation: Througho…

> for every day you stay under your limit, you'll grow your personal streak.

So this is using gamification to game gamification? Interesting.

> immediately start scrolling through [...] Facebook

There are some other interesting add-ons in this area. I'm a big fan of safebook[0].

> - Your browsing history stays in your browser and is never transmitted.

That sentence worries me. If I told you "I haven't stolen anything from your living room," you'd probably start to think what other room I'd looted.

[0]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/safebook/

Re: Show HN: I made a Chrome extension to stop mindless browsing

#8

Post by nougatbyte »

mattwad wrote: post #3
namuorg wrote: post #2

Hey HN, I've been working on a Chrome/Firefox extension called Intention to help me stay focused and not get distracted, and for me and my friends, we've found it more effective than other tools we've tried. The idea behind it is extremely simple: Commit to a time limit before using a distracting site. This prevents the two most common ways that we get sucked into distractions online: 1. Habitual navigation: Througho…

I really like this idea! The setup was also very easy too and honest about permissions (using Firefox). I 'enabled' Hacker News for 5 minutes so i could leave you a comment :) Next I need this for my phone.

You could try kiwi browser or Firefox mobile, they are compatible with some desktop extensions (not on iOS)

Re: Show HN: I made a Chrome extension to stop mindless browsing

#9

Post by namuorg »

hjek wrote: post #5
namuorg wrote: post #2

Hey HN, I've been working on a Chrome/Firefox extension called Intention to help me stay focused and not get distracted, and for me and my friends, we've found it more effective than other tools we've tried. The idea behind it is extremely simple: Commit to a time limit before using a distracting site. This prevents the two most common ways that we get sucked into distractions online: 1. Habitual navigation: Througho…

> for every day you stay under your limit, you'll grow your personal streak. So this is using gamification to game gamification? Interesting. > immediately start scrolling through [...] Facebook There are some other interesting add-ons in this area. I'm a big fan of safebook[0]. > - Your browsing history stays in your browser and is never transmitted. That sentence worries me. If I told you "I haven't stolen anything…

> So this is using gamification to game gamification? Interesting.

You got it!

> There are some other interesting add-ons in this area. I'm a big fan of safebook[0].

Oh, safebook does look interesting. Do you ever turn it off to look at real content or simply use it as a blocker?

> That sentence worries me. If I told you "I haven't stolen anything from your living room," you'd probably start to think what other room I'd looted.

Yeah, I want to be super clear about how I handle user data, especially since Chrome extensions can often be pretty sketchy and scary: (from my blog: https://www.notion.so/dkthehuman/Day-4-The-Danger-of-Chrome-...). I decided to be explicit about it even though there's the downside you pointed out.

Re: Show HN: I made a Chrome extension to stop mindless browsing

#10

Post by namuorg »

mattboulos wrote: post #7

This is just lovely. Clean, exactly what I need, and the on-boarding/privacy experience is best-in-class. Well done.

Thanks so much! I spent a ton of time making sure that it's as privacy-oriented as possible and asks for minimal permissions, unlike most extensions in this space that ask for permissions for all sites. It doesn't make sense that a tool to help with YouTube or Twitter should also have access to your banking site and emails.

Glad you appreciate it. :)

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