Show HN: A Chrome extension to remind you why you opened Facebook (opens in new tab)

On the problem of wasting time browsing - I stick to a rough Pomodoro style principle. Coffee in the morning while I spend 20 minutes gorging on the sweet sweet stream of fresh info from HN/Reddit/Feedly/Twitter that surfaced while I slept.

Anything that looks interesting but requires more than a few minutes to chew on (like this, today: FBI Paid More Than $1M to Hack San Bernardino iPhone) I bookmark.

Throughout the day I take 10mins break for each 50mins of work, I don't go to these sites again, I just work through what I picked out in that first 20 minutes.

Gets the thirst for news out of the way and allows you to procrastinate, in a sense, "productively".

EDIT: This piece of code wasn't used and has since been removed. This app has my stamp of approval now!

From the github:

"f.action = 'http://gtmetrix.com/analyze.html?bm';"

... are you tracking people with this application?

I found that the timeline is the problem. It has been tweaked and reworked to make you spend as much time as possible mindlessly scrolling, liking and interacting.

I solved the problem by simply removing the timeline. Well, you can't actually remove it. But unfollowing everyone and everything results in this:

https://i.imgur.com/w4JZbct.png

It might not be for everyone, but it works excellent for me. And nowadays I actually complete what I came there for.

One more trick for you: use messenger.com if you need contact with people at work but don't want notifications or the news feed to distract you.

Many years ago I visited a large (junk) news site several times every day (aftonbladet.se - largest site in Sweden). I asked myself why, but couldn't tell. So I started writing down what articles I had read that had been worth ready. Not much it turned out. So I stopped visiting it, and don't regret it. But it was really hard to break the habit, like an addiction.

News feed eradicator is another useful tool along the same lines.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...

A similar idea that comes to mind seeing this:

Every hour, you should see a quick summary of the pages you browsed through for the past hour.

It's easy to waste time not realizing how long you spent on AskReddit/TvTropes/whatever...

But if an hour of browsing flashes before your eyes and you can see nothing productive, it will wake you up.

How about a different solution to prevent the problem in the first place - A chrome extension to warn you before loading that tempting facebook link that you are about to spend (statistically) x minutes on Facebook.

I could have really used this the other night when I went on to wish my friend a happy birthday....and then missed her birthday.

This would be a great plugin for the workplace, but it appears to be laced with profanity. That's definitely going to prevent a number of people from using it. Maybe redo the language and add an "Angry Mode" that is a bit more insulting if the user wants that...

Also, it's clearly tracking me, but nowhere can I find anything that discloses that. I can only assume you're collecting/selling my data, so there's absolutely no way I am installing this, and I am DEFINITELY not recommending it for workplace use, because I don't know what kind of data you might be collecting.

If you want to make some cash on these things, add some ads. You definitely have space in that injected header to fit a banner or two.

Has somebody broken out FB events into a standalone app yet? Can't wait until the real world can go back to being the focus.

I generated a random password for Facebook, put it in my phone, and then promptly logged out of FB in chrome.

I can look at facebook on my phone all I want, but the app sucks anyway and I feel like an obvious slacker if I look at my phone for a long time, or glance at it more frequently than once an hour or so.

Works for me.

I need a similar thing to remind me why I visited Google, after playing with the doodle.

I like this idea except I don't use facebook. Sign me up when you target HN :-)

We are starting to realise that information overload is leading to a diabetes-like condition for the mind. Solutions like these mean we haven't only diagnosed ourselves but also almost immediately fighting back.

Speaking of facebook-related chrome extensions, I recommand this work of art, suprinsigly well done to the finest details: Ponyhoof https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ponyhoof/efjjgphed...

You should also see http://usedetox.com

You can access the feeds on Panda http://usepanda.com instead of Facebook feed.

If you want a desktop Messenger application, check this out : http://messengerfordesktop.com

Electron app, uses native notifications, no need to run a webpage in a browser.

This won't work because it requires user input. People are lazy, and unless you are extremely disciplined I guarantee you will stop wanting to use that input box very soon after installing.

I need this on my phone more than I need a chrome extension, since I mainly go to Facebook on my phone. But good idea!

love the clear use of profanity and simplicity of this extension, but luckily facebook is blocked for me =)

this should work for youtube, google, twitter and whole bunch of other things as well, not just facebook