StartWithTheClassicStayFocusedExtension
I used to think I had plenty of self-control. Then I found myself watching 20 minutes of parrot dancing videos on YouTube before even opening my inbox. đ Thatâs when I installed StayFocusd.
Hereâs how it works: you install the extension, go into Settings, and create a list of websites you tend to spiral down intoâTwitter, Reddit, YouTube, even news outlets. Then you set a max time youâre allowed to access them per day, say 15 minutes. Once you hit that limit, the sites just stop loading. Like, completely blocked. Thereâs a nuclear option, too, which locks the settings for a set number of hours, so you literally canât go back in and change it on a whim.
Itâs not perfect. Sometimes I forget to add a domain variationâlike reddit.com vs www.reddit.comâand oops, loophole. But once youâve set it up properly, itâs surprisingly effective. The real catch is the way it guilt-trips you: when you try to access a blocked site, it throws a message like âShouldnât you be working?â and yeah, it stings a little đ
One weird bug I ran into: if youâre using profiles in Chrome and you donât install the extension on all of them, you can bypass your own rules. I ended up deleting all but one profile just to get it to behave properly. But StayFocusd is one of those things I reinstall every time I set up a new machine. Simple, brutal, wildly effective.
UseTideToPairFocusTimeWithAmbientNoise
Tide tries to combine two things that kind of sound woo-woo at first but actually help: a Pomodoro-style timer and ambient audio options (like cafe sounds or forest rain). The timer follows the olâ 25 minutes focus, 5 minutes break format, or you can customize it.
What I like is how it forces full-screen mode when you start a session. That means if youâre someone who constantly flips between tabs even when you donât need to, Tide kind of walls you into the session. And you canât pause it mid-timer either â thatâs the kicker. Once you hit Start, youâre committed until the timer expires.
Now, if youâre like me and sometimes run Spotify or YouTube ambiance in the background, it can get messy because Tide wants to be the audio boss. You canât layer Tideâs sounds over your own music unless you run Tide muted. I ended up just using their cafĂŠ noise most of the time. Funny thing: the âwindâ soundtrack almost knocked me out the first time I used it while working at night. đŹď¸đ´
The extension also integrates with mobile, so if you’re doing this across devices, there’s some continuity. But it doesn’t sync your session stats between the browser and the phone. I sent them a support email about it months ago and, yupâno reply.
BlockFacebookFeedsWithNewsFeedEradicator
If your version of âIâll just be checking messages for a secondâ turns into scrolling memes for 20 minutes, then News Feed Eradicator is gonna give you your life back. It doesnât block Facebook entirely, it just replaces the feed with a quote like âIt does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stopâ (Confucius gets a lot of screen time in this one).
The cool part is that you can still check your groups, notifications, or eventsâso if you work in social media or run groups, youâre fine. You just wonât see that endless scroll of content demanding your attention.
Small snag: when Meta changes layout structures (which they casually do any Tuesday), the extension sometimes breaks for a day or two. Iâve had the entire thing stop working until an update rolled out. Also, be ready to manually refresh the extension in your list if it doesn’t auto-update. Itâs one of those low-maintenance high-impact add-ons I keep enabled year-round.
TryLeechBlockForAdvancedSiteRules
LeechBlock takes the idea of blocking distracting sites and basically hands you a control panel from a spaceship. Itâs intense, but thatâs kind of the point. You can set up multiple âblocksâ that each apply to different sites, times of day, or even how many minutes total per hour theyâre allowed.
I set up one block to completely ban Reddit and Twitter between 9am and 6pm, and a second one to allow YouTube only on weekends. Thereâs even a stealth mode where blocked sites just redirect to a blank page, so you don’t even get the satisfaction of seeing the “blocked by LeechBlock” message.
Hereâs what tripped me up originally: if you forget to name a block, it can still function but you wonât know which rule itâs pulling from. Plus the UI is a little dated. Took me 30 minutes to make sense of which block was being applied whenâespecially because it allows overlapping schedules.
Still, itâs the extension I recommend to people who do remote work and have total browser freedom. Just donât forget your master unlock settings â I once blocked myself out of LinkedIn during a hiring sprint. Oops đ
UseTabSuspenderToReduceOpenTabOverload
This one isnât technically about blocking distractions, but trust meâit helps. The extension suspends inactive tabs after a set time (I use 15 minutes) so they stop eating up RAM and mental space. I didnât realize how much tab hoarding was bogging me down until I installed this.
Visual cue-wise, suspended tabs usually show a faded title or a little icon, depending on your theme. When you try to reopen the tab, it reloadsâbut if a tab had an unsaved form or input, it might lose that state. So donât suspend tabs you’re in the middle of typing in.
One actual glitch I saw with Tab Suspender: if Tooltip previews are enabled in your browser (like showing a pop-up of the webpage when hovering), those can trigger the tab to unsuspend in some cases. Took a while to figure out. I thought my tabs were unsuspending themselves like ghosts. Spooky.
I keep this pinned right next to my ad blocker. It doesnât keep me off YouTube, but it does keep 47 different news articles I meant to read later from slowing everything down.
EnableStrictModeInBlockSiteSettings
BlockSiteâs homepage is full of productivity fluff, but dig into the settings and itâs a surprisingly powerful deterrent. You can blacklist URLs, sure, but what makes it work for me (and not feel like just another blocker) is the Strict Mode. Once thatâs on, you canât disable the extension or remove sites without entering a password.
And yes, I set a random password and saved it somewhere horribly inconvenient, so I canât talk myself out of the block during a late-night âjust five minutesâ moment. đ¤Ś
BlockSite also lets you schedule work and break sessions. I configured it M-F for 9â6 with five-minute breaks every hour. During break time, the blocks lift temporarily, so I can check a couple things â but I only have 5 minutes, so it regulates itself.
You can even redirect blocked URLs to an inspiration quote page or a productivity dashboard (I redirect to a Notion task list). Only thing I wish it had was multi-device sync. I use Chrome on a second laptop in the living room and yeah, thatâs my workaround cheat window for now.
SetMomentumAsYourNewTabHomepage
Most default new tab pages just show you your top visited sites, which usually pulls you back to distractions. Momentum replaces that completely with a beautiful background, a greeting, and a main focus input. I usually put my top task of the day there: âFinish proposal v3â or âReply to Tomasâs email.â
The whole idea is to psychologically steer you toward intentional work every time you open a new tab. Momentum also shows a to-do list if you want to use that feature, a little weather widget, and inspiring quotes.
Whatâs funny is that after a while, I stopped treating it like a tool and started reacting to it like a grumpy coworker. Some days Iâm like âYeah, Momentum, I KNOW my focus already, okay?â but on others, that gentle nudge stops the default twitch of typing t for Twitter in the address bar.
Performance-wise, itâs light. Doesnât interfere with other extensions. If youâre curious, you can find it at momentumdash.com. But fair warningâit wonât block anything. It just gently tries to interrupt your autopilot.
UseForestIfYouNeedPlantGuiltToFocus
This one is weird but works better than I expected. Forest turns your focus session into a game where a tree grows while you work. If you leave the active tab or disrupt the session, the tree dies. And honestly, watching a sad little stump appear because I opened Instagram mid-timer is way more painful than I thought.
You can grow full forests over time, showing your accumulated focus blocks. The real kicker is that in the mobile version, they partner with a tree-planting charity so your sessions can contribute to real-world tree planting. That makes you weirdly more committed to growing that lil digital pine. đ˛
The Chrome extension alone doesnât enforce anythingâitâs basically an overlay you run while working. I run it during writing sessions, and it helps tie focus to something visual and living (well, virtually living). Probably better suited to solo workers than teams, since itâs so self-performative.
Also: it doesnât actually block anything. So I use it together with LeechBlock or BlockSite. The tree grows, but the internet stays fenced off. That’s the only way it survives.