TAB: Take a Break

A simple Chrome extension to improve mindfulness about your screentime!

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Inspiration

We wanted to attempt something entirely new during this year's hackathon, and thought a Chrome extension would be the perfect choice because it allows us to directly interface with the user on their browser, which we thought was very cool! The name TAB came from an inside joke between us as we were concepting the project, and many of the other features also started out as jokes/offhand comments as we were developing.

What it does

TAB is a simple Chrome extension where the user can set a screentime limit for themselves, and at the end of that time popups will begin to fill the screen and make it harder for them to keep working. Eventually, their screen will lock for a set amount of time where they're encouraged to get up and take a break from their work, counteracting the effects of longterm blue light exposure!

How we built it

We used HTML, CS, JavaScript, and the Chrome API in TAB.

Challenges we ran into

As we were learning how to make a Chrome extension from scratch while we were working on this project, we ran into plenty of bugs and standstills while trying to implement our idea, but we are pretty satisfied with the final product!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Getting it done to begin with, as well as implementing most of the things we set out to while brainstorming it :)

What we learned

That localStorage and chrome.storage.local may sound like the same thing, but one works just fine with Chrome extensions while the other completely and utterly breaks your code... :')

What's next for TAB: Take a Break

We have a lot of plans and stretches for what we can add to TAB next, including but not limited to: custom image uploads for the popups, randomized music during the break timer, and a completely separate mode called Stop the Brainrot! where instead of the screen locking for a set amount of time, you have to complete a fun brain teaser/minigame in order to keep browsing -- our way of stimulating the brain and preventing mindless doomscrolling on social media!

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