I earn a monthly salary. That means that as long as I avoid getting fired I earn the same amount regardless of how much time I spend on Reddit/Facebook.
I'm salaried and eligible for overtime, but I don't have the option of overtime whenever I want. I did have a job with unlimited overtime once, but it didn't last (the overtime I mean, they decided to classify us as exempt).
If you are eligible for overtime, it seems like, say, time-and-a-half is probably going to be more lucrative than a second job.
Exactly, that was the takeout from this discussion.
I'm going to make functionality to assign a rate for each website, a positive or negative one. Even rates for different parts of the website. Also, a potentially useful feature is to make a cap, like the first 30 min per day does not count.
Feature request - make it fun and position it in a different way than "how much you would make instead". Calculating hourly rate multiplied by time spent on a distracting platform is useless because in reality the overwhelming majority of people don't have an additional income source where that time can be invested. And the ones who do will find it really difficult to calculate an accurate hourly rate.
On top of this, you need to take into account the income benefit of leisure time and relaxation, and the income benefit of casual random interactions on platforms like HN, reddit, youtube. And let's not forget time spent learning - associating a monetary amount with it is so so difficult.
That's a very good point, however, then it becomes much more complex.
> time spent on a distracting platform is useless because in reality the overwhelming majority of people don't have an additional income source where that time can be invested in
Was thinking to propose options for that, e.g. give a link guides how to make a side income, for example, Upwork, creation of youtube channel, etc.
To make it positive is a good challenge as well.
I can introduce some scores that would take into account a ratio between time spent on a productive vs non-productive website and show the result as an icon that shows a summary for a day, like learning, leisure, work.
Do you have specific ideas on how to make it more positive?
There is an idea to assign a positive hourly rate for good time spent and a negative hourly rate to other activities in the internet.
The app would track that time spend and show balance to gamify productivity rise.
This is the current idea of how to approach the challenges you have mentioned.
But time != energy + motivation. Also time != money. I realize it won't be as eye-catching, but showing time wasted rather than money is more direct and truthful. Then I suppose the problem is that apps like that already exist...
I made a mobile game, and ended up with negative money from the experience. I spent a lot time I could have wasted on reddit/HN/Factorio. I'd rather a guide to ideas that could be profitable than a guide that only tells me to stops wasting time.
Fair point. But I bet you have earned quite a good experience from building that app. And it was an idea that could be profitable. It's never 100% guaranty.
I learned a lot, but quite a bit that made me cynical.
Marketing is very important, but I'll never have a marketing budget big enough to compete. With that thought, odds aren't much better than the lottery.
Next time I won't do advert based mobile games, that's for sure.
1. Instead of just looking at the opportunity cost also factor in the actual costs, e.g., Netflix requires a paid subscription in addition to time.
2. You could include affiliate links to services for earning money in free time as an alternative to wasting time with earning estimates given input time and skill level. This could include ride-hail platforms (Lyft, Uber), knowledge work platforms (Fiverr, Upwork), even Mechanical Turk.
Zero. EUR. Using neither;) But what a time sink is sleeping ;) Personally I agree with other comments and it’s not about those apps per se or equaling time with money.
Why do you spend time on them? If you can’t answer that question or they don’t net positive value even zero EUR/hour is too much.
I like iOS time tracking feature which tells me that I am too much on HN and Wikipedia.
The problem is not so much Facebook/Reddit, but because I don't have a low commitment way to take a break.
I don't need an app that tells me not to spend my time productively. I need an app that helps me recuperate in 20 minutes. A non-addictive game would be great.