Create a Cron Job to Change Default Browser for Work-Life Balance

Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is important when you’re a developer. Especially if you work remote. When I set up a new development environment, I create a cron job to change the default browser between work hours and ‘play’ hours. I use Chrome professionally as much of my workflow is built around the Google ecosphere. But I use Firefox as my personal browser (and so should you) for several reasons, the most important being Mozilla’s emphasis on privacy.

How to Create a Cron Job to Change the Default Browser

Here’s the snippet I use to create a cron job to change the default browser between 8:30AM and 5PM:

30 8 * * 1-5 xdg-settings set default-web-browser google-chrome.desktop
0 17 * * 1-5 xdg-settings set default-web-browser firefox.desktop

Cron jobs follow the ‘5 Star’ format:

* * * * * 

From left-to-right, each asterisk corresponds to the following:

1. Minute (by the hour)
2. Hour (by 24-hour clock)
3. Day (of the month)
4. Month
5. Day(s) (of the week)

In my snippet above, the cron job I created will run at 8:30AM (30 8), but only on weekdays (1-5). This will set my default browser as Chrome.

30 8 * * 1-5 xdg-settings set default-web-browser google-chrome.desktop

At 5PM (0 17), the cron job will run and set my default browser back to Firefox.

0 17 * * 1-5 xdg-settings set default-web-browser firefox.desktop

I leave the day of the month and the month at their default values (*).

Create a Cron Job to Change Default Browser

Creating a cron job on a Unix/Linux environment is easy.

To list the cron job for the current user:

crontab- l

To edit the cron job for the current user:

crontab -e

What are your work-life balance hacks? Let me know on Twitter @jarednielsen