New Y Combinator startup 8aweek aims to help you stop wasting all that time on random Internet sites. They offer a Firefox plugin that monitors the web sites you visit and how long you spend on each site. If you are on a user-defined “restricted site,” the plugin will tell you when you’ve spent too much time there. Or alternatively, it will block sites if you tell it to be a little more aggressive about time management.
Some users may not be all that Interested in having the plugin try to change their surfing habits. But the service also provides an interesting chart showing all the sites you visited the previous 24 hours and how much total time was spent there. Some users may be surprised to see, for example, just how much of their life is spent on Facebook. The product includes a privacy option that allows users to turn off monitoring, or have the data stored only on their PC, not the Internet.
The company is offering the plugin for free; they want to make money by selling the service to businesses who want to limit the amount of time their employees waste on the Internet. Today businesses can buy a web filter to block access to known time wasting sites. But filters don’t catch everything, and some companies may want to take a softer stance by simply monitoring time on these sites rather than blocking them outright.
8aweek is very similar to RescueTime, another Y Combinator startup that launched last November. RescueTime montiors usage of both websites as well as desktop applications, so the products are not identical. But the products seem too close for comfort – I’m surprised Y Combinator is backing both of them.
this is really cool.
I’ve been using RescueTime for a while now. Can’t see what 8aweek can offer that RT can’t.
I like it though that YC is willing to invest in several companies that compete in the same space.
well, it’s good to see more players in the time-management space, though it’s unfortunate that 8aweek is only a firefox toolbar and doesn’t track desktop usage.
i’ve been using rescuetime.com for a while now – it’s ridiculously useful.
haha.. someone tell Julia Allison about this! She wrote a blog entry about a plugin to stop her from visiting her ex’s MySpace page… which of course got me thinking along the same lines about a plugin that helps us stop wasting time.
Kudos for making this a reality
This is a really cool idea. I love the deep integration with my browsing. Shame its only firefox at the moment.
That’s a lot of time in Crunchbase… it’s interesting that Crunchbase is the main tool you use for your job.
Отели Волгограда, уютный отель класса «Люкс», конференц-зал, контакты, бронирование номеров, организация досуга, сауна. «Mega Space» предлагает размещение в уютных номерах категории «Полулюкс» и «Люкс», оснащенных всем необходимым для комфортного проживания, фото. Одним словом все, для отдыха в Волгограде
I beta tested 8aweek and found it super useful. I also use RescueTime and love it as well. There are some differences between the two.
For example 8aweek gives you more immediate feedback about how much time you are spending at a site via a count down clock in the browser. I found that this helps prevent me from wasting time before it is actually gone, a very nice feature that RescueTime does not offer.
it will be of serious use. lots of ppl i know, including me, just surf aimlessly and it really costs time and money. good concept
RK
http://theindia...t.blogspot.com/
Keith – that’s just 6 minutes and 40 seconds in crunchbase. I took the screen shot just a while after installing the plugin.
Really interesting idea, i really like this. look foward to testing it out.
Right, now I see the “Minutes” at the top of the bars.
Cool idea. Will hopefully help with my TechCrunch addiction
It’s a pain that the toolbar seems to be fixed in place, though. I’d really like customise it (get rid of some of the irrelevant stuff) and move it beside one of my other bars.
http://www.i-gu....ro/blog/Ro/en/
http://www.i-gu....ro/blog/Ro/en/
nice blog
It’s “interesting” that people need a technical solution to help them stop wasting so much time on with that technology.
I have a better solution. It’s called the off switch.
I use MeeTimer (http://getmeetimer.com) which is developed by the guys who make the GTDinbox plugin. Can be annoying sometimes, but it brought my procrastination time to near zero minutes. Seeing a graph or even a simple percentage is enough to make you snap out of it and get back to work.
I’ve been using 8aweek and RescueTime both for some time now. They actually fit together nicely. 8aweek is in browser and actually stops you from doing something you don’t want to do. RescueTime just tells you when you’ve been erring. You can analyze and delve into your faults and successes in both.
I love em both.
I’ve used rescuetime just this week, and so far it’s pretty neat. Here’s a feature suggestion perhaps for both startups: enforce ratios between my activities. let’s say I should do 30 minutes of “work” for every five minutes of “fun” like visiting facebook. Rescuetime should aggressively enforce this 6:1 ratio, and I can earn back time to have “fun” by putting in more work.
Of course the real answer here is amazing self-discipline.
thaz evil.
i use firefox, i open all the site and leave them there. so how is it counted?
if they plan to sell the service to company, i won’t support it.
btw, if my boss installs this for me, i won’t come to TC nemore. which i can’t, i will allocate those fun time to my personal email..
Since I manage my own time I don’t have anybody looking over my shoulder. However, these tools seem quite useful for those of us who have to create their own priorities and manage their own time. I’m going to check out Rescue Time and try to learn where I can trim the fat.
Great post!
Waste-o-Meter was first in this segment before Rescue Time and 8aWeek, however doesn’t have the feature set of Rescue Time. It seems as finally people start to take action against Internet addiction.
8aweek, thank you – I’ve been needing this tool for a long time. Much too long, in fact. I look forward to a life of productivity instead the blackhole of mindless web surfing…
I see the definite potential for selling this kind of program to companies for monitoring purposes, but I would never use something like this on my personal computer… what a drag
We think 8aWeek is really cool (and recommend it). We eat dinner with those guys once a week and have batted around ideas with ‘em. Ultimately, I think the difference between the apps is pretty clear if you try ‘em both. I also think you’ll see a much clearer differentiation between the two businesses in the coming months. Congrats to 8aWeek on the launch!
I think this will be very helpful. It will be interesting to see where all the time goes.
Good idea. It would be nice to similar plug in for other browsers too.
This program seemed great! I love tracking my online activity
BUT…It wastes more time by consuming SOOOO Much Memory
It makes FLOCK run at 225,000k
Without 8aweek FLOCK runs at 65,000k
I would love to use this Extension…but I can’t invest 160,000k of memory on it. Anyone else have this issue?