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I have tried desperately to use technology to help me use technology less. I love my smartphone and Facebook and YouTube, I just don't want to spend all day on
by spuz 9y ago
I have tried desperately to use technology to help me use technology less. I love my smartphone and Facebook and YouTube, I just don't want to spend all day on them. I have implemented some crude solutions already and they certainly help. For example, my PC shuts down automatically at midnight thanks to a cronjob. I also have a plug socket that turns off my router every night at midnight. I have a number of chrome plugins installed to help me use social media less. However, because none of these solutions are in-built they are not ideal - I can bypass them or they stop me doing work when I need to do it.
I want my phone to nudge me if it thinks I'm spending too long on certain apps. I want reddit to stop loading if I've spent more than an hour on it that day. I want to be able to bypass these limitations if I strictly need to (for example, "You've spent 1 hour on reddit already today, click here to pay $0.10 for another 15 minutes). Just in the way that technology can be fine-tuned to grab your attention, I know that it can be designed to help you get the most out of your time. I really would pay $10 / month for a version of YouTube or Chrome that had these features. If anyone knows of solutions like this please let me know.
- tdaltonc 9y agoHave you tried our app Space? You're right about the engineering limits of it being an app. It's very frustrating. Space was initially rejected from the Apple app store. It only got through after it was featured on 60 Minutes. If you use Android, email me. We're working on something extra strength there. https://youjustneedspace.com https://youjustneedspace.com
- massaman_yams 9y agoRescueTime on desktop Chrome can be set up to do this. Not sure about mobile support though.
- spuz 9y agoI used RescueTime for a while but it has two serious flaws. Firstly, it has no system for scheduling focus time and secondly, it has no system for breaking focus time for a short period. I would constantly find myself terminating the program just to browse the news for 5 minutes and then 90 minutes later wonder why I hadn't done any work. I've submitted both of these ideas as feature requests but I don't have much hope that they will implement them as the app has not changed in several years.
- CrackpotGonzo 9y agoThis just launched on Android. Still in beta. http://www.getsiempo.com/ http://www.getsiempo.com/