MeeTimer 0.2 is a few days from launch, having been tested for the last week.
For the completely uninitiated, the first MeeTimer precisely logged your Web usage, breaking it into ‘activities’ for more meaningful stats; to give you the knowledge to become proactive in reducing it.
Well, the new version still does this (and with very few of your precious computing resources), but with improved stats.
It now focuses on the working week. Or rather, what % of it you’ve wasted on non-work activities. Why is this useful? Because it directly correlates to the amount of time you need not have been at work… something very close to all our hearts! (And to freelancers/independants, how much more you could squeeze from your working week).
But, the biggest feedback from the first release was simply ‘i cannot help myself, even though I know its wrong’. We needed more timely deterrents; things that actually make you stop and think.
I found a common online habit was the ‘compulsive click’ – just clicking an attractive link without stopping to think of the consequences. Well, MeeTimer will now put up two barriers; one to stop you clicking the link, and one to stop you loading the page; to shock you with a quick stat and give you the opportunity to consciously think “I do not want to load this site.”
Obviously, all this is configurable – so some activities you get warned on, some you do not. MeeTimer will not annoy you.
And, for all those wondering why it doesn’t just forcibly prevent you loading a site. Well, there are plenty of these products on the market – I didn’t want to make another. What I did want was a tool that suited me. Every day, there will be a website I need to visit that isn’t “approved”; so I would have to stop the blocking tool long enough to use the site, then put it up again – not an efficient use of time. MeeTimer does not attempt to block you, rather it goes with your (work) flow and simply guides you on a path to better Web use.
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This was written by Andy Mitchell