Preference to unblock sites only during a break

[benbest86]

Adding a preference that blocks sites at the end of a pomodoro so that
blocked sites can only be accessed during break time, encouraging the
start of a new Pomodoro at the end of a break to get back to break time!

[matchu]

Interesting. If you could help me understand the functionality change here: it looks like what this does is, instead of allowing leaving sites unblocked after a break timer expires, at the end of the break timer everything is re-blocked again. Is that right?

Interesting premise, but I'm troubled by the idea that the user can never escape the Pomodoro cycle: not all of my time online is work time—in fact, I'd say significantly more of my time online is free time. For what type of user is this feature intended? Work-only computers, perhaps?

I dunno. We'd definitely have to add some clarification language to explain exactly what that checkbox does, so as to avoid users trying it and then feeling totally trapped—that could be some major frustration. (Really, the whole concept of the lull between timers isn't as well-explained as it really ought to be, though, when I look at actual usage patterns, I suppose it doesn't really need to be explained in order to use the extension intuitively enough. Whatever, I'm sidetracked xD)

Even then, though, I'm not sure enough users meet the work-only-computer criterion to justify an additional checkbox in the public Web Store edition :/ But thanks for the contribution, I'll let you know if I change my mind, and I'm glad to know that your fork at least meets your own needs :D

Happy Saturday!

[matchu]

Hm, a thought occurs to me: I just realized I never closed the Auto Mode pull request, even though I had reached about the same decision: it's a neat feature, but only relevant for a particular niche userbase.

But! Perhaps these two features could be merged into a sort of Forever Mode for work-only computers. If we could sell 'em under that umbrella of a larger functionality change rather than a bunch of checkboxes for obscure features (a design I really want to avoid), the combo-packaging might make both features significantly stronger. Ooh, and then users could not only choose to have this on forever, but also go the lighter route of scheduling Forever Mode if they know they'll need to stay focused for the next X hours. Interesting. Re-opened so I can think about this a bit more :)

[benbest86]

Thanks for the quick response! I agree that the checkbox naming isn't the
most clear, and totally understand the desire to avoid a bunch of
checkboxes for obscure. I like the idea of adding a schedule in to put on
"forever-mode" I think that's a great idea. Let me know if there's anything
else I can do to help!

On Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 4:36 AM, matchu <
[email protected]

wrote:

Hm, a thought occurs to me: I just realized I never closed the Auto Mode pull request, even
though I had reached about the same decision: it's a neat feature, but only
relevant for a particular niche userbase.

But! Perhaps these two features could be merged into a sort of Forever
Mode for work-only computers. If we could sell 'em under that umbrella of a
larger functionality change rather than a bunch of checkboxes for obscure
features (a design I really want to avoid), the combo-packaging might make
both features significantly stronger. Ooh, and then users could not only
choose to have this on forever, but also go the lighter route of
scheduling Forever Mode if they know they'll need to stay focused for the
next X hours. Interesting. Re-opened so I can think about this a bit more :)

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#12 (comment)

[xgdgsc]

+1 for the option to only be able to show blacklisted sites during rest 5 min. And I hope this one can be automatically disabled after some number (user selected) such as 16 pomodoros of the day, and automatically turned on the next day. So users will know they will get free time after some solid pomodoros of dedicated work. For now, users tend to keep wasting time on these sites after 5 min break is over, and it's hard for many people to start the next pomodoro.

[matchu]

Heh. Is "many people" just you? ;)

…well, okay, it's also me. This is an issue with the current one-click UI: the only way to break the cycle right now is to never start a new work timer, so we can't distinguish between being done and procrastination. I think the 2.0 UI might be able to better address that, though, and maybe re-block sites at the break timer until the user either clicks "Start work timer" (in which case they stay blocked) or they click "All done" (in which case they're unblocked again). I'll keep it in mind :)