
Show HN: A Chrome extension to remind you why you opened Facebook - joshblour
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/focusbook/gpgidhknoflhjnncoihnmonkehncnpgl
======
welanes
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".

~~~
rollinDyno
That 'sweet sweet stream' actually contains not what surfaced while you slept
but during the whole day except your allotted 20 minutes.

How do you consume 4 streams (HN, Reddit, Feedly and Twitter) each containing
roughly 24 hours of activity, in 20 minutes?

~~~
giancarlostoro
I'm pretty sure he means he looks at all the headlines, and then picks
whatever is the most relevant / interesting to read throughout the day.

------
Raphmedia
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';"](http://gtmetrix.com/analyze.html?bm';")

... are you tracking people with this application?

~~~
joshblour
hey Raphemdia, actual developer and OP here, (user yonah91 was created a few
minutes ago) the line of code you're referring to is in a file called popup.js
which is never actually loaded . It's from the sample code which I used to
learn how to make a chrome extension
([https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/getstarted#resources](https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/getstarted#resources))
I'll remove it now, so that people don't the wrong idea.

~~~
joshblour
done. File removed:
[https://github.com/yonahforst/focusbook/commit/491cf59a087c8...](https://github.com/yonahforst/focusbook/commit/491cf59a087c8f73ac5b88cbfe5b9a442d85a1e1)

------
unicornporn
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](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.

~~~
herbst
I do the same. My Facebook account is basically my Business account and
nothing else. No friends, no likes other than my sites, no nothing.

------
ambivalence
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.

~~~
rorygreen
Having used Facebook mainly for the messaging functionality for years now, I'm
amazed I never knew messenger.com existed. It's interesting to consider that,
although I use an ad-blocker, it must be in Facebook's interests to keep
people on the main site in order to throw adverts at them, further infiltrate
their lives etc.

~~~
mullsork
They're adding all sorts of junk to Messenger. Surely they're monetizing that
platform on itself already, or will soon.

------
rlv-dan
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.

~~~
aryamaan
I am similar boat these days. Every 10 minutes I am doing spending reading
something on mobile, 8 minutes will be on Facebook.

Yesterday, I deleted the app and found myself multiple times missing that. So,
yeah, it's a habit hard to break. And now, I try to spend same amount of time
reading some light book on my kindle app.

~~~
ahel
It's like a month that I uninstalled the facebook app, because it didn't
provide enough value. I didn't noticed the correlation until now, but last
week I started carrying with me my old kindle touch during my commute. It just
happened and I'm at Chapter 11 of Crystal Society
[[http://crystal.raelifin.com/](http://crystal.raelifin.com/)].

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

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-
eradicat...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicator-
for/fjcldmjmjhkklehbacihaiopjklihlgg?hl=en)

~~~
knn
The news feed eradicator has been a very good solution for me. I can still
message, participate in groups, but that damned newsfeed is blocked! The
newsfeed is engineered to suck up all of our precious cognitive space and fill
it with mostly junk.

~~~
kevan
I found this out recently, in case anyone else doesn't know, messenger.com [1]
gets you facebook chat without the rest of facebook. I use it a lot during the
day when I want to talk to people but not get sucked into the news feed.

[1] [https://www.messenger.com/](https://www.messenger.com/)

~~~
therein
I use Messenger.com and I like it except for one big inconvenience. The right
bar displaying thumbnails of all your past photos exchanged within a
conversation is nothing but annoying and even if you hide it, when you refresh
it, it pops up again.

------
MasterScrat
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.

~~~
halflings
This doesn't look super pretty, but seems to do the job:

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/timestats/ejifodhj...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/timestats/ejifodhjoeeenihgfpjijjmpomaphmah?hl=en)

------
bottled_poe
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.

------
aidos
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.

~~~
joshblour
hhahhaha then this was made for you XD

------
RIMR
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.

~~~
joshblour
Hey. Good point about the profanity. I'll add an option toggle it on and off.
It was meant to be sort of a fun tool for myself.

About tracking, it is absolutely not tracking anything or anyone. That line of
code referring to gtmetrix.com is from the sample google extension which i
just forgot to remove.
[https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/getstarted#resources](https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/getstarted#resources)
I'll remove it now. Sorry for the confusion. I hate tracking and would never
do it to anyone without their permission (or even with their permission)

~~~
joshblour
done. file removed:
[https://github.com/yonahforst/focusbook/commit/491cf59a087c8...](https://github.com/yonahforst/focusbook/commit/491cf59a087c8f73ac5b88cbfe5b9a442d85a1e1)

------
tammer
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.

------
allemagne
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.

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

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

~~~
noobie
HN already has an in-built anti-procrastination feature.

------
rollinDyno
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.

------
Buetol
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...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ponyhoof/efjjgphedlaihnlgaibiaihhmhaejjdd?hl=en)

------
ahmetsulek
You should also see [http://usedetox.com](http://usedetox.com)

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

------
tdkl
If you want a desktop Messenger application, check this out :
[http://messengerfordesktop.com](http://messengerfordesktop.com)

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

------
druska
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.

------
cableshaft
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!

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

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

