The Web, you may have noticed, is full of stuff. See, here we are now adding another bit to it. With all these distractions, getting work done at your computer can become little more than a notionally possible outcome of firing up your laptop.
If that’s all too familiar, and I’ll wager it is, Ultidash’s new Chrome extension is well worth checking out. In a nutshell, it brings together a whole bunch of tools in a single extension that makes good use of your new tab page.
Plenty of other options exist for achieving similar ends, but Ultidash brings together all the regular suspects in one handy tool.
In the top-right, you have a four-day weather forecast (mouse over to expand it) and below that in the bottom-right there’s a section for adding notes to a to-do list. It’s not going to replace Trello or Todoist or whatever else you might use already, but it might be a useful addition for transient tasks.
Ultidash’s main pitch, however, is its ‘concentration timer’, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. To use it, just click in the lower left corner of the screen to open up the settings and select ‘Site Blocker’ – there you just need to set any domains you want blocked.
You can toggle the setting on or off manually, or set a countdown timer from the middle of the new tab screen. Once it has elapsed, you’ll be able to open the sites normally. And if you forget and try to before it’s elapsed, you may well get a virtual slap around the face, or the threat of one.
You can also keep track of how long you’ve managed to concentrate for in the stats section, or check out which sites you spend most of your time on. Finally, in the top left corner there’s a search bar that brings you regular ol’ Google results.
If you’re determined to waste time, you’re going to find a way, but if you just need a little help staying focused, Ultidash is worth checking out. And it’s free.
