Dashboard may help us finally quit wasting our time

For the most part, today was a fairly slow day as far as tech news is concerned; last night was also a pretty uneventful night. Because of this, I found myself continually looking through every tech site I could find for content as well as scanning social media constantly hoping it would spark some motivation. After awhile, it occurred to me that I had done nothing all night except surf what I could; that is when the topic struck me: The Dashboard.

If you didn't know about anything to come out of I/O this year, other than what I told you previously, you may not have heard of Dashboard. Included in the upcoming Android P, Dashboard is an app that tracks how long you spend on each app during the day, and more importantly, it allows you to set timers for how long you can spend on the app.

Let's say you get the feeling that you spend too much time on Pinterest during the day. You could check Dashboard, and it will tell you exactly how long you spent on the app. If it is too much, you could set a timer for the amount of time you wish to spend on it. If you reach your allotted time, that is when the real fun starts as the phone will stop you from opening it. Great, right?

As soon as the time limit is reached, the app will shut down, and the icon will turn gray-scale on both the home screen and in the app drawer. And, if you think you can just click the icon and have the option to override the restriction, you might want to think again because tapping the icon will do absolutely nothing. If you really want to timer because you can't last the rest of the day without the app, you will have to go into the dashboard, choose the app, and change the settings for more time.

Now, if you really can't live without the app the rest of the day, you may have a problem, but at least there is a way. However, it is designed to be difficult to override the restriction because you made the choice to set it in the first place. The point of this app, as well as most of Google's announcements is to give you more of your time back. From Google Assistant making calls to Dashboard locking you out of time wasters, Google is basically making the point that our time is better spent elsewhere; these apps want you to put your phone down.

Parents may find these new features essential and beneficial; you can finally have some control in how their kids use their phones and how long they use them for without having to constantly confiscate and monitor the devices themselves. But, more importantly, for most of population including myself, we can finally stop wasting so much time looking at the same things again and again waiting for something to justify wasting time in the first place.