Focus Gatekeeper
Makes you wait ten seconds and say why, before it lets you doomscroll.
What you're making
Instead of blocking distracting sites outright — which you'd just switch off — this puts a small delay in the way and asks you to type why you're going there. Most of the time you won't bother, and that's the point. It keeps a log of your reasons, which becomes an oddly honest picture of your own habits.
An intervention extension that interrupts navigation to chosen sites with a delay and a prompt, then logs the stated reason. Friction rather than prohibition, because outright blockers get disabled within a week.
Hosting · Free forever
Deploys free on Firefox Add-ons or GitHub Releases.
Firefox's store is free. Chrome's charges a one-off developer fee, so ship Firefox first if you'd rather pay nothing.
Free on Firefox Add-ons; Chrome's store charges a one-off developer fee.
Core features · 7
- Configurable list of sites that trigger the gate
- A countdown you must sit through before continuing
- Asks you to type a reason before it lets you through
- Logs every reason with a timestamp
- A weekly summary of what you told yourself
- Grants a time window after entry so it doesn't nag repeatedly
- Deliberately annoying to disable in the moment
The interesting part
- Intercepting navigation early enough that the page never flashes into view
- Making it hard to bypass impulsively without being genuinely hard to turn off
- Handling redirects and single-page apps that change route without a page load
Once it works
- Escalate the delay as daily visits pile up
- Add scheduled focus hours
- Show your most common excuse back to you