Happy September, reporters! Hope those of you in the U.S. had a good Labor Day.
As sometimes happens as a freelancer, I’ve found myself with weeks ahead of me and almost nothing scheduled. Work, sure, but no meetings or deadlines for the forseeable future.
Dream life! Right? Sort of. There’s significant downsides to having no rigid schedule. One of them is the struggle of being actually productive.
The latest tool I’ve come across is a funny little thing called Timewarp. It’s a Chrome extension that reminds and cajoles and forces you into working when you’d rather, say, scroll through Facebook.
It has three options:
- Redirect you from one site – like Facebook – to another – like your email inbox.
- Keep track of how much time your spending on said time-waster and display it on your screen, like a little guilt trip ticking away.
- As a last resort, hit you with an inspirational or finger-wagging message.
The option is up to you. Of course, if you need to actually use Facebook for work, you can temporarily disable the extension by clicking the little turquoise rocket. Now, back to work!