Desi Discipline

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Desi Mom
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Inspiration

Some of us on the team grew up under the loving-but-terrifying rule of Indian moms who did not play when it came to studying. One side glance and you were suddenly productive for the next 3 hours. That kind of discipline (and love) kept us on track, so we thought it would be fun to bring that same energy into the digital world.

What it does

Desi Discipline helps you stay focused by tracking distractions during study sessions. If you visit a "bad" website like Instagram or YouTube (when it's not for studying), your virtual desi mom appears with her big NO-NO finger to remind you to get back on track. The companion website also gives you insights into your session, including how many distractions you had and your overall focus time.

How we built it

We built a web app using React and Next.js, with JavaScript handling authentication and analytics. On top of that, we created a browser extension that monitors your activity during a study session. It tracks how many times you leave approved sites and shows a funny, angry Indian mom GIF when you visit distracting websites. We also began integrating Gemini’s API for potential future features.

Challenges we ran into

We faced several challenges along the way. Authentication gave us a hard time initially. It was also tricky to determine whether a site was "good" or "bad"—especially with websites like YouTube that can be both. Integrating external APIs like Gemini and coordinating the extension with the web platform also took some effort.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud that the extension can successfully detect good and bad websites, display the appropriate reminders, and sync data with our analytics dashboard. It actually works, and it's funny!

What we learned

We learned how to integrate APIs, use web scraping, and work with both browser extensions and analytics tracking. We also gained experience with authentication flows and connecting extensions to a backend system.

What's next for Desi Discipline

We’re planning to build a mobile version that can detect when you leave the app during a study session. We also want to add more character options (not just the Indian mom), improve detection of distractions, and introduce a "lockdown mode" that actively blocks distracting websites entirely.