An idea for a computer product

[davidlevine]

What I would like is a screen saver that, when you sit down at the computer, will not unlock until you answer the question "What did you come to the computer to do?" and then displays that answer prominently but not obnoxiously on the screen (perhaps in a floating or semi-transparent window) until dismissed. Perhaps to dismiss it you would have to type in some text indicating what you had done about the whatever-it-was. Perhaps the prompt and the reply would be recorded, time-stamped, in a log file.

This is intended to address the problem of going to the computer and getting sucked in by LiveJournal or Facebook or Twitter or such for an hour before you realize you didn't even do the simple five-minute thing you went to the computer to do.

Does this exist (for the Mac, please)? Or do any of you have the skillz to write it?

(Yes, it could be overridden by typing gibberish, and after using the thing for a while one would probably get in the habit of doing so. It's as hard to outsmart oneself as it is to tickle oneself. But one must try...)

Getting up and doing something else now.

Comments

[tournevis]

Not quite what you asked but there is a setting in the Desktop Preference Pane that forces you to enter the account's password everytime you wake your computer or after your screen saver has turned on. I use that.

[lauraanne_gilman]

can we have one that clears its throat gentle after fifteen minutes spent on FB or other such location, reminding you that time is money and you don't have enough of either? I need that....

[davidlevine]

This. In the voice of Stephen Fry.

[madrobins]

Oh, please yes.

[madrobins]

And I need it for my offspring, too. Avocado has discovered Facebook and hasn't been seen since.

[voidampersand]

It's a good idea. I don't know if it's already been done -- maybe someone in the Getting Things Done space has thought of it. For writing it, you would need a reminder app that has a companion screen saver module. It might be better to have just a reminder app that prompts after the computer has woken from sleep. That avoids possible conflicts with the built-in feature requiring a password to wake.

[davidlevine]

Is it possible to have the app prompt after the screen saver is dismissed, rather than after the computer wakes from sleep?

[voidampersand]

There's probably some event from the OS or the Cocoa framework that the app could hook into. But without looking, I don't know what it is. My guess is once that's figured out, the rest of the app is trivial.

[madrobins]

This is genius. Although I perhaps would add a shock component so that every time the message appears I would be, um, forcefully reminded of what I am supposed to be doing...