Interrupt scrolling, tab overload, and AI autopilot
pause.do is a privacy-first browser extension that interrupts the moments when attention slips into autopilot, endless scrolling, tab overload, and even AI prompts. Instead of blocking websites, it creates small, intentional pauses that help you think first and decide what to do next. With pause types like Think First, Scroll Pause, Session Nudge, Focus Limit, and Tab Overload, pause.do helps you stay in control of your attention online.
discussing an MIT paper showing that when people rely heavily on LLMs for simple tasks, their cognitive engagement can actually drop over time.
That stuck with me.
I realized how often I was opening ChatGPT or scrolling feeds before even trying to think through a problem myself.
So I built a small weekend project: a screen-time style browser extension with a twist.
Instead of blocking websites, pause.do introduces small pauses when attention tends to drift:
• before AI prompts • during long scrolling sessions • when tab overload starts • when you spend too long in certain apps
The goal isn’t restriction. It’s simply to reintroduce a moment to think first.
Everything runs locally in the browser, and no browsing data ever leaves your device.
What started as a simple experiment turned into something surprisingly helpful for my own habits online.
Curious what you all think.
Do you ever catch yourself asking AI something before trying to think it through yourself?
Would love your feedback 🙏
About Pause.do on Product Hunt
“Interrupt scrolling, tab overload, and AI autopilot”
Pause.do launched on Product Hunt on March 23rd, 2026 and earned 153 upvotes and 22 comments, placing #7 on the daily leaderboard. pause.do is a privacy-first browser extension that interrupts the moments when attention slips into autopilot, endless scrolling, tab overload, and even AI prompts. Instead of blocking websites, it creates small, intentional pauses that help you think first and decide what to do next. With pause types like Think First, Scroll Pause, Session Nudge, Focus Limit, and Tab Overload, pause.do helps you stay in control of your attention online.
On the analytics side, Pause.do competes within Chrome Extensions, Productivity and Artificial Intelligence — topics that collectively have 1.2M followers on Product Hunt. The dashboard above tracks how Pause.do performed against the three products that launched closest to it on the same day.
Who hunted Pause.do?
Pause.do was hunted by Adenekan Wonderful. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
For a complete overview of Pause.do including community comment highlights and product details, visit the product overview.
Adenekan Wonderful
👋 Hey Product Hunt!
The idea for pause.do started from something that made me uncomfortable.
I watched a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbS3CLSOeoU&t=1198s
discussing an MIT paper showing that when people rely heavily on LLMs for simple tasks, their cognitive engagement can actually drop over time.
That stuck with me.
I realized how often I was opening ChatGPT or scrolling feeds before even trying to think through a problem myself.
So I built a small weekend project: a screen-time style browser extension with a twist.
Instead of blocking websites, pause.do introduces small pauses when attention tends to drift:
• before AI prompts
• during long scrolling sessions
• when tab overload starts
• when you spend too long in certain apps
The goal isn’t restriction.
It’s simply to reintroduce a moment to think first.
Everything runs locally in the browser, and no browsing data ever leaves your device.
What started as a simple experiment turned into something surprisingly helpful for my own habits online.
Curious what you all think.
Do you ever catch yourself asking AI something before trying to think it through yourself?
Would love your feedback 🙏