Our interconnected digital lives make us incredibly productive, but sometimes with a catch. No longer do we pour through pages of library research when all of Google is at our disposal. But this technology comes at a price. This day and age, it allows for just as efficient productivity at say, finding endless memes of the political candidates or tagging friends in Facebook memes that beseech us to “tag a friend that looks like this chicken nugget.”

These memes may nostalgically cause you to reminisce about simpler times; times of siblings sitting around a living room with pizza bagels and Capri Suns, jokingly pointing to an unsightly TV character and proclaiming to your siblings “that’s you!”. But the rabbit hole of the distraction can feel bottomless, and doesn't always equate to the productivity required for finishing that assignment on 17th-century British imperialism you have due at midnight.

Looking for a better way to maximize productivity without completely unplugging, I came upon “Stayfocusd” last week. Stay Focusd is a free Google Chrome extension that that promotes productivity. Once installed, you just input a list of distraction websites and set a customizable timer for the aggregate time you are allowed to browse those sites. While that may sound complicated, it’s quite simple. You set a timer of how long each day, in total, you want to spend browsing websites that distract you and add your custom list of those sites. After you use your allotted time, the sites are blocked in your browser.

After a week of using this application, I find myself not only more productive but also more mindful. I’m starting to understand my browsing habits and notice how easy it is to jump sporadically into Facebook for unproductive five minute periods. The fact is, gratuitous browsing comes at a cost-- the time spent on these sites is the time we can spend efficiently doing real work, and I’ve noticed that this mindfulness keeps me more engaged with my own work. After all, the memes can wait.

Feel like giving it a go? Download it here:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocu...