Spotlight on Compulsion

I often find myself closing and instantly re-opening tabs of news sites, social media, youtube etc. when there is something slightly difficult or mundane that I should be working on.

It actually scares me a little when I think about this compulsive behaviour and how often I do this in a typical day. It's not a deliberate thing. I briefly check twitter, Cmd-W, Cmd-T, hit 't' and return; and I'm back on twitter like I never left.

This shot is my idea to try and shine a spotlight on this unconscious action: A chrome extension to take something unthought and make my brain acknowledge what I am doing.

This extension displays a bar across the window clearly stating how long ago this site was visited and fades out the content below, each time I revisit a site I deem to be "distracting", within a defined period. The colour of the bar will change depending on how soon I am returning to a site.

The bar will persist for a few seconds before sliding up and returning the page to it's full opacity.

It is my hope that this reminder that I am mindlessly procrastinating will be enough to reduce my wasted time and break some deeply engrained habits.