Timesmart is a chrome plugin that addresses the behavior of wasted time and uses information and nudging to help motivated users self regulate their time online

Download this chrome extension here: https://github.com/yining1023/timer

We did a survey with 37 ITP students, and we got some interesting findings.

  • Approximately how many hours a day do you spend in the browser?

More than 50% people spend more than 7 hours in the browser per day, also 20% people spend more than 9 hours per day. In general, almost all the respondents spend more than 3 hours per day. We found out half of people spend significant amount of time in the browser everyday.

  • What website do you spend the most time on?

 gmail, google, facebook, youtube, netflix

  • Would you like to spend less time on certain websites?

facebook, gmail, youtube, netflix, twitter

  • People are interested in the idea of tracking their time

  • People accept the idea of set an alarm for certain websites

  • Our respondents don’t want an extension that blocks or disrupts their workflow

Many times, after spending all day on the floor working, I came home, I still needed to do some work, but I didn’t feel like doing it. So I decided to watch netflix for one hour first. But while I was watching netflix, I lost track of time. At the end of the night, instead of 1 hours, I spent more than 3 hours on netflix, and it was already 1am in the morning, I had to go to sleep and got up the next day feeling tired and unprepared for my class. So we built this chrome extension to help people like me to keep track of time and make more conscious decisions.

So now when I come home and open netflix, I can check timeSmart first.

  • I can see the time I spent on the top 4 most visited websites. today/average daily/all time. I can also go to option, choose to ignore google.com, choose to show top 6 most visited websites instead of 4. clear data.

  • Set alarm, input time, message, enjoy netflix. When the time is up, notification window. It shows the message I input before. When the time is up, you can click ok to close the notification. But it won’t close the netflix for me. I get to decide either to continue watching it or close it. This a nudge and not a hammer over the head. We want to inform users and let them make their own decisions.

So I decide to close Netflix, and do some work, and sleep early, and feel prepared for my class the next morning.

Main features

  • Time Visualization

    • Automated time capture

    • Current active tab

    • Daily/Average/All Time

  • Setting an Alarm

    • Input time

    • Customise notification message

  • Option

    • Ignore certain websites

    • Show Top X