If you visit specific websites at regular times within the week, you probably have it bookmarked for easy access. However, if you want a more automated solution, you might want to try this method. A FireFox extension called My Weekly Browsing enables you to schedule one or more websites to automatically load at a time and day that you specify.

It’s a pretty clever idea and definitely cuts down your browsing time since you don’t need to type in the URL or click on several bookmarks.

Here’s how it works:

  • Download the extension from the Add-Ons store.
  • Restart FireFox.
  • Upon Restarting, you’ll see a small icon on the Add-On bar (bottom right corner of the browser). If you’re unable to see this, right-click on a blank space on the Menu Bar and see that Add-on Bar is checked. Click on the extension icon (looks like a calendar).
  • Click on Add New to add a site. To add more than one site, click on Add Group. You can also choose sites from your bookmarks by selecting Add From Bookmarks.
  • Tick on the boxes under the days you want to schedule the website to load (Mon – Sun).
  • You can tick on the # column to still load the site if you missed the original schedule. This means that the website will load by default the next time you open FireFox.
  • Specify the hour, minute and time of day (am/pm) in the last four columns. The time is based on you computer’s time, so there is no need to configure a time zone.
  • For more tweaks, click on the Show Options button on the bottom right corner of the window.

Here you can either have the websites open in a new tab or using a new window. There is also an option to set a delay of 10 to 60 seconds after the set time.

To get a notification on the Toolbar instead of opening the websites, just tick on the box beside alert on Toolbar. The notification is found on the bottom right corner – you’ll see another calendar icon with a drop-down box and the number of websites you have scheduled to load.

To add a current webpage, simply right click on it and click on My Weekly Browsing…Add Current Page.

To take websites off the list, click on its name and hit the Delete button on the bottom.

For more clarity on any of the options, you can see a detailed list of functions on the add-on’s More section. To view this, click on Tools in the Menu bar, go to Add-ons. Make sure you’re on the Extensions tab and click on More under My Weekly Browsing.

In my observation, setting the sites to open in a new window is more preferable since it will not interfere with what you are currently doing. However, using new tabs to open it is advisable for opening more than one site at one specific time. Either way, this add-on is another great way to save time or to avoid missing out on your favorite blogs or news sites.

Kim is a freelance tech writer who loves to explore mobile and web applications.Visit her blog, Kim The Writer, where she gives freelance writing advice.

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