/jailtime

A web extension that helps you avoid getting trapped in a time sink by "trapping" you on one page.

Primary LanguageJavaScriptMIT LicenseMIT

JailTime

A web extension that helps you avoid getting imprisoned in a time sink by "imprisoning" you on one page.

Have you ever needed to look up a quick Wikipedia article, watch a short YouTube tutorial, or read a brief answer to a programming question you had on Reddit and then found your curiosity piqued by a blue link, a video in your recommendations, or a "hot/trending" post on the sidebar? Before you know it, morning has turned into noon and you've spent an hour or two stuck diving into a rabbit hole for what should have been a quick Google search.

These sites, intentional or not, tend to trap us through one method in common. To make you stay for as long as possible, they include lots and lots of outgoing links to more interesting content. One page, video, or tweet is quickly exhausted, but "more like this you may enjoy around the web" sections, often driven by algorithms fed by your very own activity, ensure there's an endless supply of stuff for you to consume.

You can try to block those sites, but they often have tons of content useful to your productivity side by side with mindless entertainment. What happens if you look up an error message and the only results are YouTube videos and r/AskProgramming threads? You can either forgo the source and look for a solution elsewhere, if it even exists, or disable your blocker temporarily and risk getting sucked into browsing again.

The best-of-both-worlds solution is to simply get rid of that recommended section altogether, be it those blue Wikipedia hyperlinks, YouTube homepage, or "more posts from this community" footer. By removing links to other content, the website can no longer entice you to stay on it and you can still safely get in, retrieve your information, and get out without worrying about getting tempted or tricked into wasting your precious time.