Copywriter, technical writer, translator (FR>EN, ES>EN, IT>EN), journalist

The best web browser home screen, bar none

Web browsing can be the bane of my productivity. There. I wrote it.

Actually, I did write it once before, in this blog post about RescueTime.

I recently figured out another way to use RescueTime to boost my productivity, and it’s so simple I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of doing this before.

I set RescueTime as the home page on my web browsers – ALL my web browsers.

Imagine whether you would want to check out a news or sports website, or social media site, when the first thing you see upon starting your web browser is this:

A summary of my work productivity, as measured by RescueTime

(I need to get more productive!)

Here’s how this looks for people who prefer visuals:

A colour-coded summary of work efficiency, as measured by RescueTime

(hmm… at least I’m not in the “red” zone”)

The time I spend on computer-based activities, measured by RescueTime

(…gotta get out of email and into writing…)

The RescueTime dashboard is exactly what I need to see when I fire up a web browser. For instance, if I’m near 70 per cent productivity for a day, I seem to feel like I need to focus on work to break that 70 per cent barrier.

Every time I start the browser, open a new tab or open a new window, I see my productivity score staring back at me. It makes me feel good if I know I’m raising it and not so good if the score goes down.

RescueTime accounts are free. (There are paid options too.) Try this – get an account, sign in, then set up the RescueTime dashboard as your browser’s home screen. If you have the same weakness for visiting non-work websites when you “should” be working, this might be the incentive you need to stay focused on work. So far, it’s working for me!