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Keep your nose to the grindstone with Grindstone

Nick

Nick

  • Updated:

Grindstone logoWhat’s the biggest obstacle to productivity for the modern office worker? Slow PC’s, poor IT support, jammed printers, pure boredom? No, if we’re a little bit honest then it’s all those fun little distractions such as YouTube, MySpace and Facebook which take valuable chunks out of our day.

Unless you’ve got an iron will, it’s very hard to resist a video clip or a set of photos from the last party you attended when you know you really should be working. Therefore, Greasemonkey has come to the rescue with a clever little script called Grindstone. As the developers say:

The internet is addictive. The web is filled with new and shiny things that can be distracting when you want to be productive. And multitasking only makes it harder to get things done. Grindstone is a Greasemonkey script to help block websites that steal your focus. You tell it which sites to block and when to block them. Think of it as a safety net for staying productive.

When you try to access sites that you’ve asked Grindstone to kindly keep you away from, you’ll receive a splash message on your screen saying such messages as “Don’t Lose The Flow”, “Keep Grinding” or “Stay Focused” gently reminding you to keep your eyes on your work. Note that this is a script rather than a Firefox add-on so the installation process is slightly more complicated but on the plus side, scripts are generally more stable and cause less add-on conflict issues.

To get it going, you’ll need to ensure you have the Greasemonkey extension installed and then simply install the Grindstone script and away you go – the boss will be proud of you!

Nick

Nick

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