So I just got broadband for the first time in two years, and I can already see that this is a mixed bag. I have pretty infinite capacity to waste time on the net, and frankly I see most time spent on the net as something that makes my life a less rich and enjoyable experience. I want to be able to relax a bit, post on the dope, and enjoy the good things about the net, but I don’t want to watch my life slip away as I press “refresh” endlessly.
So far I’ve installed the “Leechblock” firefox extension, which seems to be awesome. You can limit what times you can visit a site, how long you spend on it, what days you can visit it, etc. Right now I’ve got the 'dope and facebook limited to an hour a day, no more than thirty minutes at a time, with Tuesday being my free-for-all no limits day. It even has a nice little timer showing how much time I have left on the site.
I also installed MeTimer, which keeps a running tab of how long you’ve been where on the Internet. It’s kind of terrifying to have my wasted time all added up like that. It seems a little more work oriented than life oriented, but it’s a good reminder to see that clock running.
So what tools have you found that help you? I’d like something that could help me with time wasted on StumbleUpon and the like but that lets me stream all the video I want- streaming video is a good background for me as I do other work.