I Built a Chrome Extension to Block Distracting Sites and Fix My Pomodoro Timer — Here's What I Learned

Promise Uzoechi Posted on May 30 I Built a Chrome Extension to Block Distracting Sites and Fix My Pomodoro Timer — Here's What I Learned # productivity # extensions # opensource # showdev Let me be honest about something embarrassing. I've read Deep Work . I've read Atomic Habits . I had a colour-coded Notion workspace that would make a productivity influencer cry with joy. I used three different Pomodoro apps across three years. I had a site blocker installed. I was still wasting about two hours a day. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out where the leak was. The moment I finally saw it One afternoon I was watching my own screen — actually watching myself work, not in a productivity-hack way, just because I was curious — and I noticed something. Every time I finished a Pomodoro session and went to start the next task, I'd open a new Chrome tab. And in the half-second before I typed anything, my hand just... went to Twitter. Or Reddit. Or sometimes I'd start typing a URL and somehow end up on a completely different one. The new tab page was the leak. Not the sites themselves. Not my willpower. The empty, invitation-shaped blank canvas that Chrome opens every time you hit Cmd+T was giving my brain a window to hijack the transition. My site blocker wasn't catching it because I technically wasn't browsing to a distraction site yet. I was just "in between" tasks. The blocker sees a navigation. The decision to navigate happens before that. So I built a fix I'm a developer. This is what we do instead of therapy. I built a Chrome extension called Ashdeck that replaces the new tab page entirely. When you open a new tab, instead of a blank canvas, you see: Your current Pomodoro timer (running or ready to start) My task list I can see exactly what I'm working on A site blocker that activates the moment a session starts Science-backed soundscapes Binaural beats, café noise, white noise built in. The idea is simple: remove the moment of emptiness. Give the tr