What if it was effortless to stay focused on the Web? My plan to solve this problem with a browser extension

I’m developing a browser extension that aims to solve the problem of getting distracted when interactin with the Web. It allows you to nudge your behaviour through a configurable set of changes toyour browser environment. The result is you require less conscious control to stay focused instead of being reactive and distracted.

Inspired by a key idea: Rely on your environment to keep you focused, not your willpower

“The antidote to impulsiveness is forethought” — Nir Eyal, Indistractable

The extension is based on two ideas:

1. The human brain has highly developed executive function abilities, however our cognitive control is weak. We can make plans and set goals judiciously, but our ability to execute our plans through controlling our attention, managing our goals and memory is far weaker.

2. Our environment powerfully shapes our behaviour.

The extension gives you the tools to create a browser environment that doesn’t oppose your goals, so you don’t rely on your fallible cognitive control. You rely on an environment which you’ve designed to shape your desired behaviour instead.

What Does It Mean To Be Focused?

“…you can’t call something a “distraction” unless you know what it is distracting you from” — Nir Eyal, Indistractable

For the extension to make focus effortless, its design needs to be based on an accurate model of focus and distraction.

My current mental model is based on what I learned from the books “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High Tech World” by Adam Gazzaley and Dr. Larry Rosen and “Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life” by Nir Eyal.

Focus and distraction are meaningful terms only relative to a goal. When we set a goal, our brains try to control our attention, goal management and working memory to execute on it.

These cognitive abilities are collectively called cognitive control and the human brain is weak at them. That means we are susceptible to what Gazzaley calls interference, or noise that derails the process of completing our chosen goal.

Gazzaley identifies two types of interference: interruption and distraction. Interruption is when you choose to set another goal before completing the last one. Often the result is we manage two or more goals at once by switching between them. Distraction is when we are exposed to information irrelevant towards our goal and we have to consciously choose to ignore it and move on, as opposed to choosing to engage with it which would be an interruption.

Both kinds of interference are noise that make it harder to complete our goals when using a Web browser. For the extension to be helpful, it has to reduce interference.

Interference can originate from internal and external cues. Besides webpages, thoughts and feelings often prompt us internally to interrupt our goals before completing them or distract us with irrelevant info.

A significant motivator for distraction on the browser are uncomfortable feelings of discomfort, anxiety or pain we attempt to escape through Web browsing. According to Nir Eyal, developing pain-management strategies is key to becoming indistractable. Internal sources of interference are an important part of the problem, but difficult to address directly with a browser extension. Features inspired by cognitive-behavioural therapy could be added to extension users become aware of how they manage pain instinctively and guide them to recondition their behaviour. Until I research that more, the extension will focus on reducing sources of external interference and indirectly managing internal inerference by allowing you to set boundaries.

Experiment with different changes to your browser environment until the environment keeps you focused

Given this model of focus/distraction, how will the extension make it effortless to stay focused? By giving the user a tweakable set of changes they can make to their browser environment. The aim is to experiment with changes to your browser environment (nudges to your behaviour) until its effortless to stay focused without feeling constrained or encumbered by the restrictions/boundaries you set. If you can remain on track even when you’re tired or have low morale (or simply be aware you need to turn the computer off and rest, instead of sliding into distraction), then the extension is a success.

Some ideas for nudges I have:

• Allow the user to mark their goal in using the browser and to mark it complete or interrupted. Additionally, they can note when they’re distracted or pulled by irrelevant information. The aim is to have some gauge of how distracted/focused you are when using the browser.
• Have your browser history (including incognito browsing) be public to friends and family. It could be presented together with the data of the particular goal set when visiting a page, whether that goal was interrupted or completed, and the noting of distractions. If I had to be accountable to all my browser behaviour, it would certainly change my behaviour.
• Force the user to specify a goal any time the browser is used.
• Display your chosen goal on every website in a subtle banner.
• Instead of a banner with the goal, there could be a visual indication of being watched like a pair of eyes appearing on the web pages you visit. I recall a psychological experiment where people acted more honest when a poster with a pair of eyes was placed on a wall. Maybe this can have a similar effect? What if it shows a pair of eyes when someone is literally looking at your browser/goal history on your public profile?
• Allow the user to specify a time to accomplish their goal. They can see the timer counting down on every page. Once the timer is complete, there are multiple options. There could be a prompt asking the user if they need to extend their time or if the goal is complete, or else there could be a 1 minute break that blocks all browser use before prompting for the next goal, or something else.
• Perhaps goals can be categorized, if you’re attempting a goal similar to one you’ve done before you can try to surpass your previous best time.
• There can be a visual display of the amount of time you spent on a website (even across links you click on the same domain). Another browser extension called Nudge had this bubble that would slowly grow to fill up the screen the longer you stayed on a site. It could just be a clock that shows you how long you’ve spent on a website this current session and or the cumulative time you’ve spent this day or year.
• There can be an artificial delay for loading certain websites or all websites. I can be helpful to stop motivation feedback loops for being formed, or gradually unconditioning them. For example, if it took a 10 second delay to open some website that gives you a quick dopamine hit, you’re far less likely to develop compulsive behaviour. The problem is not overdoing it such that you remove it. There’s an extension that implements this already called Crackbook Revival.
• You can have a hard rule that kicks you out of the browser for 5 minutes if you’ve been using it continuously for 40 minutes. I know when I’m in a spiral of distraction, a forced short break from the computer can get me back to my senses.
• You can have a list of blocked sites and a list of allowed sites. When you visit a site that isn’t on either list, you are prompted if this site is necessary for you goal. Once you pass the site, you can use the site only with higher restrictions. For example there could be a fixed time limit for using the site, or all links can be grayed out and stop working, or you have to finish everything in one go (if you click away from the page it closes automatically). Blocked sites are simply totally blocked, allowed sites can be visited without restriction. This nudge could be interesting, because for my line of work at least I don’t know beforehand what sites are necessary for my work and the sites that can be useful can also be extremely distracting, in that case I can visit sites I list as unequivocally helpful freely, but visits to any other site are guided on rails.
• You can hide elements completely or replace them with a toggle to show. Or even completely redesign certain sites so that they show only information you explicitly ask for, excluding extra information that can distract you.
• Having a one click escape button. When you’re aware you’re distracted and need a reset, can shut everything off and save it for later with one click. It reduces the energy require to start a reset.

If you’d like to share your own nudge ideas or your thoughts on the extension concept, you can share them here: https://forms.gle/BBuUky8DdWLvDKav5.

If you want to learn more or contact me directly about this project, you can shoot me an email at: iuliu.laurentiu.pop@protonmail.com

Summary & What’s Next for The Project

To recap, I want to solve the problem of getting distracted when using the Web browser. I aim to solve that through a browser extension that changes the browser environment to require less deliberate effort to remain focused. The extension will do that through a configurable set of nudges or changes to the browser environment that a user can experiment with until the browser environment supports the behaviour they want.

Next week, I will release the first version of the extension so you can try it. You can stay tuned for updates by following me on Twitter: twitter.com/iulspop