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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

#41

Post by imhoguy »

devmunchies wrote: post #18

these last 2 weeks me and my wife created a strict rule where we can't have any screens (laptops, phone, tablets) in a bedroom. now we don't browse while laying in bed in the morning or at night. this simple change cutdown on my addiction even when out of my bed room. When we go to our bedroom at night we know it means bed time, its a mental change. Also, at first you'll feel an urge to look at your phone at night, b…

I think what contributes the most to that bad habit is dependency on alarm clock app in our smartphones.

I need to finally buy two alarm clocks with snooze and weekly schedule.

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

#43

Post by thehappypm »

This is awesome! My mindless browsing became so bad at one point that I made my own extension that I called "Detour". It automatically redirects you from one site to another, so if I absent-mindedly navigated to Reddit, it'd detour me to my homework to-do list. Never got around to really fleshing it out and building the types of features that would really make it useful like this. Kudos!

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

#44

Post by namuorg »

andy_ppp wrote: post #39
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…

This is absolutely amazing, thank you so much, and also thanks for being clear about the data you are using and privacy up front. Because of this, I'm definitely up for paying you, let me know where to send my dollars.

Wow, I really appreciate that! My aspiration is to work on this sustainably full-time and expand to mobile, etc. so I do plan to eventually come up with a paid model for Intention (and would love your support when I do!). For now, it'll be free while I work out a lot of the kinks and make the product truly excellent. Thanks for your comment — really heartening to get this kind of feedback.

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

#47

Post by namuorg »

j88439h84 wrote: post #29

Hey this looks really helpful! I appreciate your commitment to privacy, that's a very important feature for me. Nonetheless, having been burned by Chrome extensions in the past [1], I'm worried about privacy and I'm wondering if you'd be willing to make it open source to allay those concerns. [1] https://robertheaton.com/2018/07/02/stylish-browser-extensio...

Hey! I totally get where you're coming from. I wrote a post exploring the privacy and security of Chrome extensions: https://www.notion.so/dkthehuman/Day-4-The-Danger-of-Chrome-...

I'd love to open source Intention like I've done with a ton of previous projects (http://github.com/dkthehuman/), but since it's a Chrome extension, that'd make it trivial for anyone to copy. Given that I'd like to eventually develop a paid plan and make working on this full-time financially sustainable, I hope you can understand why open sourcing doesn't seem like a viable option.

I'm brainstorming ways to make the extension as transparent as possible (e.g. if I ever decide to include analytics, (1) providing an opt-out and (2) a way to view all the information that's transmitted in a human-readable way), but at the heart of it, using Intention will require some trust in my integrity and care as a developer. I'm also hoping that writing about my decision-making process publicly in my journal (https://roadtoramen.com) will provide transparency and help develop that trust. If you ever see me going astray or not thinking clearly, please keep me accountable!

If it helps, here are some of the things I've written about privacy (I think about this quite a bit):

- My privacy principles: https://www.notion.so/dkthehuman/Day-97-Privacy-Principles-5...

- Privacy gut checks: https://www.notion.so/dkthehuman/Day-86-Privacy-Gut-Checks-0...

- Exploring whether I should include analytics: https://www.notion.so/dkthehuman/Day-45-Should-I-include-ana...

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

#48

Post by fernandotakai »

imhoguy wrote: post #41
devmunchies wrote: post #18

these last 2 weeks me and my wife created a strict rule where we can't have any screens (laptops, phone, tablets) in a bedroom. now we don't browse while laying in bed in the morning or at night. this simple change cutdown on my addiction even when out of my bed room. When we go to our bedroom at night we know it means bed time, its a mental change. Also, at first you'll feel an urge to look at your phone at night, b…

I think what contributes the most to that bad habit is dependency on alarm clock app in our smartphones. I need to finally buy two alarm clocks with snooze and weekly schedule.

i've been working from home for the past 10 years and for the past 10ish months i just stopped using an alarm clock. work is flexible enough that as long as i'm up before midday, i won't miss any meetings.

it has been such a pleasure to wake up when my body tells me it's time to wake up!

also, i found that after giving up alarm clocks, i'm waking up between 7:30~8am naturally which is perfect.

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

#49

Post by renewiltord »

I used to use Motion but it asks me to login and shit and then doesn't even bother syncing across browsers. Waste of time. And then it slows down web pages and sticks that annoying little box on the side. My user agent has a place for you, in the toolbar. Stop rendering on top of content and then making scroll slow. Ugh.

I'll give this a shot.

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

#50

Post by wussboy »

NoiseAgent wrote: post #19

I can't seem to get it working in Firefox. I can click the icon in the top right but it just says I'm on a distracting site it does not launch the popup. Any configuration needed in Firefox?

I'm in the same boat. Doesn't seem to be doing anything.
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