Prevent Procrastination With This Chrome Extension

I’ve found myself in a vicious cycle lately. Whenever I have free time to kill, I’ll typically rotate through the same, stale list of websites, sucking up whatever new content comes along to relieve me of my boredom. I’ll bounce between Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and Gmail (and occasionally Slickdeals) in one big loop until I can finally remind myself that this is dumb and maybe I should go outside, walk around, or do something more productive with my day.

Thanks to the Chrome extension HabitLab, I’ve been able to dial back my borderline-compulsive behavior. It’s a Stanford University-backed experiment that offers plenty of different encouragements—some gentle, some not-so-much—to keep you from obsessing over whatever websites capture too much of your attention and time. We’ve talked about this extension before, but I want to dig in a bit deeper to show why HabitLab is a digital lifesaver.