You already know time is money. Wasting time online doing things that distract you from your core business is tantamount to throwing money away.  But human nature takes over sometimes and you find your mind wandering, and your mouse surfing, when you should be working.

And it’s especially bad in the world of social media. Social media loves to grab us with something interesting (and hey, it’s even worse because your friend recommended it, so you’re even more likely to click), then suck us into an abyss from which we won’t exit for hours…

Guilty, as charged!

Enter Google Chrome’s simple yet ingenious plugin “Stay Focusd”. Cutesy spelling aside, this might be one of the most seriously powerful — and simple — tools you’ll use all year.

StayFocusd is the digital version of blinders.

It quite literally blocks any site you think might distract you from getting your work done.  Once you install StayFocusd, the functionality is fairly simple. You set your preferences by choosing the sites you find particularly distracting (YouTube, ESPN, Hulu and the like)  and the length of time you’re ‘allowed’ yourself to stay on that site every day.

Once you hit that time limit — its game over. You’re quite literally locked out of that site until the following day.  If you find your time limit too draconian, you can go in and alter it. But only once 24 hours passes.

Basically, StayFocusd really means business when it comes to keeping you focused on your business.

What do you think about ‘accountability’ tools like StayFocusd? Would you ever use something like this? Or do you think it’s a crutch for business owners who just need to get a lot better at time management? Leave us a comment below and let us know!

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