Hi, I would love to be able to block a webpage from opening by keyword in the text, not just in the title
eg I more or less never want to see anything about Trump ever again, so I would love to be able to block any news article that mentions him.
And he is not the only one
On my mobile (android), when I want to set a random password, I'm limited to 100 characters. I'm visually oriented and good with symbols, so when I'm in the mood to rebel, typing in 100 random characters is a fun challenge. I really need this to go into four columns of numbers, or at least up to 500 characters, to be effective. Anyone else find this?
It would help save time and minimize distraction by enabling automatic updates. Also, to allow flexible preferences in case others may want to use them, such as the option to still download and update with the 2 steps currently done (good in case user just wants to download to update later), or to manually start the download and update process with one step.
Hi. I've been messing around with the FocusMe features and I love what it does. The ability to add websites via Blacklist while a plan is currently in effect is exactly what I've been looking for, and the K9 software doesn't work reliably enough while FocusMe does. What's keeping me from buying the subscription version is the inability to lock the Settings tab in the FocusMe program hub. While I can password protect the Plans (which is great!), I'm still able to access the Settings tab and uninstall FocusMe as my own liesure. I'm trying to use FocusMe for self moderation of websites, and since I'm able to access all these Settings, it's a deal breaker for me. Is there, or will there ever be a feature to password protect the Settings tab in the future? Thanks, Jon!
Hi there,
First of all I want to say how much I love this app already. It is by far the best distraction blocker that I have used and has really helped my productivity and life in general.
I do have a suggestion on how to improve FocusMe even more, and that is to be able to setup a plan to end not just when you type in a password, but when you have spent time on another app/website.
For example it would be really useful if I was able to block youtube, twitter and other distracting websites each day, but be able to look at them after I have spent 2 hours on a website that I use to do homework, or after an hour on Microsoft word where I need to write a report.
I'm not sure how technically feasible this is, but I have been impressed with the customer service I have received from FocusMe so far, so decided to post my idea on here
Hey, i´d like to use FocusMe parental control function.
The child should and could start the computer for his own and should get a time limit for internet access (social media sites) and apps (games). Does FocusMe and the plan starts automatically with the computer? Under settings i controled the recommended settings for parental control.
And another thing i saw: When i start e.g. youtube, the counter counts downwards. but if i use another window with windows explorer (for example) which is activated, and the youtube video besides it, the countdown time for the plan does not count downwards. Is this correct?
Imagine the time limit feature for blocked websites but in reverse. Instead, of giving a time limit to spend on distractions before they are blocked for the day. You attribute that time limit to the apps and websites you want to focus on. Once, you have spent that time on the website or app your distractions unlock. This would be perfect for people with very inconsistent schedules, giving them the chance to focus on the things that need to get done, whilst keeping their schedules flexible. This would also provide a laser targeted approach to what needs to be focused on. By allowing you to order all of your tasks by a level of importance. You can chain them accordingly by having one unlock after the other through the black list/ white list function. This could prevent the user from getting overwhelmed. I truly hope this gets considered and thanks Jon for giving me a platform to suggest this.
Primary use on a Windows 10 desktop, secondary use on a Windows 10 laptop, primary browser is Firefox.
Suggestions
Unless I'm missing something, to schedule a plan for all day you have to first click-drag on the bar, *then* manually type in 00:00-24:00. Would be nice to have a single checkbox to immediately enable all-day effect.
Would be nice to be able to re-order my plans in the list via click and drag!
Would be nice to have a changeable time interval for the "periodically force browsers active" option. The current interval can interrupt work.
Would be nice to have a "Do not periodically force browsers active while fullscreen enabled" option — I love the concept of checking for background browser use while idle, but this doesn't seem to gel well with genuinely watching longer videos (or documentaries etc.) as acceptable use.
It's a little frustrating to me that many of the general settings are bound by this "Can't change while a plan is active" rule, which effectively ties the security of that setting to the highest level of security that exists for an active plan. This effectively means that Forced plans cannot ever be made 24/7 without also completely locking the general settings, and seems a bit... too harsh. Should I really have to type in, say, 7,000 random characters to disable all my plans, just to change it so website blocks send me home instead of closing the tab? I understand that it might be clunky to have every setting have individual password protection, but I'd definitely like to be able to change settings if needed without also having to bypass every active plan. Maybe hard from a UI perspective, but can we maybe group options by "impact", or maintain a separate 'settings password', etc?
For users who do like the status quo of the settings changes, perhaps "Can't edit settings while any plans are active" could be an option in and of itself? If this change does get made, I'd super appreciate "off" being default so I don't have to go through the tedious process above :p
Queries
I notice there is a "backup settings daily" option... does this just back up the entirety of the profile, or can it back up and differentiate between specific plans as well? It would be nice to be able to "export" or "import" plans individually or as a bunch, especially for use on multiple computers.
I'm Alex and realised maybe 7 years ago that I was very badly addicted to procrastinating on the internet and had been for a long time prior without realising.
Procrastination in general increasingly became an issue for me as I run my own business and can work whenever I want often with no external deadlines.
Over the last 7 years I've tried many things to help tackle my addiction (which would sometimes swallow up 19 hours of my day) including seeing a psychologist, speaking to friends, setting long complicated passwords for other Time Limit apps, using other internet blocking apps, meditating, writing actionable lists etc etc.
Nothing really worked and I would go through good periods and long bad periods.
I needed something really powerful to completely prevent me from constantly relapsing. I started using ScreenTime on my iPhone and gave my friend the password to adjust the settings for it - this meant I could no longer reinstall distracting apps like Snapchat or Messenger - and could no longer uninstall my 3rd-party website blocking software whenever I wanted to.
But my computer was still a problem. I use it for work so I couldn't just create a parentally controlled account for myself to use and give the admin password to a friend as I need to regularly change settings and install things etc.
I had that same third-party internet blocking software I use on my iPhone on the computer but whenever I wanted to get round it I would simply force uninstall it.
If I couldn't be bothered doing that I would just use one of the never-ending web proxies out there to access whatever blocked website I wanted. I would continuously add countless proxies to my blocklist but new ones would show up everyday.
At some point very recently I saw someone online mentioned FocusMe as being a powerful tool to use for helping with internet addiction. I doubted it would be more powerful than the software I was already using but I had a look at their website and was impressed by the features of the app.
I took out the trial and knew immediately I would be paying for the lifetime membership. The ability to prevent user uninstalling is completely priceless... It means it's actually effective. And the RegEx ability is possibly unique? I no longer have to seek out every proxy website known to mankind to add to my blocklist - because FocusMe sees the blocked website or keywords in the page title regardless if the url has been scrambled. The various different levels of forced mode are useful. The time limit is great, I need to spend more time learning how the break mode thing works, I've been too afraid to use it in Forced Mode in case it means it's constantly active and cannot be edited then. I used a custom 90min Deep Focus/Pomodoro mode for work today and loved it.
Sorry if this sounds like an ad, it really isn't. I have no relationship with anyone involved in this company.
But I'm just super grateful that something like this exists because for others like me it's tough living in a world where you can't just cut out your addiction completely like you can with alcohol or gambling, the internet is a part of many of our careers. Being able to firmly control it is so liberating.
Thanks for having me here. I hope the features become more and more customisable and I hope more people find out about this software.
