• StayFocusd
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  • Shortcuts

  • General Questions
  • Max Allowed Time Per Day
  • Active Days/Hours
  • Daily Reset Time
  • The Nuclear Option
  • Blocked/Allowed Sites
  • Require Challenge
  • Credits
  • Getting Help
  • For info on past releases, check out the changelog

  • General Questions

  • What is StayFocusd?

    StayFocusd is an extension for Google Chrome that helps you stay focused on work by restricting the amount of time you can spend browsing time-wasting websites. Once your allotted time for the day has been used up, the sites you have blocked will be inaccessible until the next day.

  • Why do I need StayFocusd?

    Because you're human.

    You sit down at the computer, and you swear you'll be productive. Next thing you know, it's twelve hours later. You've checked your email, updated your Facebook status, browsed the trending topics on Twitter, read your RSS feeds, looked up your favorite band on Wikipedia, vanity googled yourself, cyber-stalked your ex, your ex's lover, and several high-school crushes, and lost a week's pay playing online poker.

    What you haven't done is WORK.

    The fact is, it's very hard to stay focused on work or school when you have all the world's information, news, music, and *cough*porn*cough* at your fingertips. Sometimes self-control is in short supply, and you need a little help keeping on track.

  • How do I use it?

    StayFocusd adds an icon to your browser, to the right of the address bar. Clicking it will display a popup window with one primary option:

    • Block this entire site: This will block you from browsing any page on the current site once time runs out. For example, if you block cnn.com, it will block all pages on cnn.com, www.cnn.com, politics.cnn.com, www.cnn.com/some-article-title, etc.

    You can also click Advanced Options to expose more specific options for blocking and allowing the domain. Let's use politics.cnn.com as an example:

    • Allow this entire site: This will allow you to browse every page on the current site, even after time runs out.

    • Only block pages on politics.cnn.com: This will prevent you from browsing only pages on the current subdomain. If you block politics.cnn.com, you will still be allowed to browse sportsillustrated.cnn.com, as well as www.cnn.com and cnn.com.

      NOTE: If you only block www.cnn.com, you will still be able to access cnn.com ... which kind of defeats the purpose of blocking the site. This option should only be used to block subdomains other than www.

    • Only allow pages on politics.cnn.com: This will allow you to browse pages on the current subdomain, even if the rest of the domain is blocked. For example, you may want to block yourself from the entire cnn.com website except politics.cnn.com.

    • Enter a custom url: This will allow you to block or allow any specific page, path, or query. For example, you may want to block yourself from Google Reader, at google.com/reader. Entering this custom url and clicking "Block custom url" will block your access to google.com/reader without preventing you from accessing any other Google url for search, email, docs, etc.

      Likewise, you can use the custom url to allow only a specific path while preventing access to the rest of a domain. For example, you may choose to block the entire Delicious site at delicious.com. However, if you want to use Delicious to bookmark a site, you'll need to allow access to delicious.com/save. Entering delicious.com/save into the custom url field and clicking "Allow custom url" will let you use Delicious for bookmarking while still blocking other delicious.com pages.

  • How do I enable StayFocusd in Incognito mode?

    Click Chrome's Wrench icon (top right, below close button), then Tools > Extensions. Look for the StayFocusd extension, and check the "Allow in incognito" checkbox.

  • Is there any way to remove the ability to disable/uninstall the extension?

    Unfortunately, no. Chrome extensions can not remove the disable or uninstall options. I do have a request in to the Chrome developers to add this ability, but I don't expect them to implement my request (ever).

    However, you CAN prevent yourself from accessing the extensions settings page by adding chrome://extensions to your Blocked Sites list. Once your time is up, you won't be able to access the settings to disable StayFocusd.

  • Can you make this extension work for other browsers? Is there a version for my phone? Can it block desktop software or other Chrome apps?

    I wish. Chrome extensions only work in Chrome -- they can't affect any other software, browsers, devices, or Chrome apps/extensions. If you find yourself using other browsers to cheat, your best bet is to uninstall them. Or you can delete the shortcuts from your desktop, quick start, start menu, etc. Making it more inconvenient to boot up another browser may help curtail the urge to cheat.

    Another alternative is to use another app like Freedom to block other browsers, apps, and mobile devices.

  • How do I stop the update notice (NEW badge on StayFocusd icon) from being displayed every time StayFocusd updates?

    You can disable the update notice in the Customize section of the Options page.

  • Do you collect any information about my browsing habits, the sites I visit, etc.?

    Nope. All StayFocusd tracks is which sites are in your blocked/allowed sites lists, and the amount of time you have spent on them for the day. All of this data is stored on your local computer -- absolutely nothing is transmitted off your computer.

  • Max Allowed Time Per Day

  • Can I change the amount of time I'm allowed per day?

    Sure, as long as your time for the day hasn't run out yet. Just visit the Options page and enter the number of minutes per day you want to allow yourself. If your time has run out for the day, you'll have to wait until tomorrow before you can update your settings.

  • Can I set different time limits for different websites?

    At the moment, no. However, it's the #1 most requested feature, so it may be added in the future. Don't hold your breath though.

  • How do I know how much time I have left?

    Clicking the StayFocusd icon in your browser will open a popup window with a display of the amount of time you have left for the day. If you are currently on a blocked site, the timer will actively count down how much time is remaining. If you're on an allowed site, or a site which is neither blocked nor allowed, then the countdown will be paused.

    When your time is almost up, a small countdown timer will appear superimposed over the StayFocusd icon. It will count down the last 60 seconds, first with a yellow background, then turning red when you're down to the last 30 seconds.

  • What happens when I'm out of time?

    Once you use up your allotted time for the day, you will not be able to access any of the sites you have blocked. If you try to access a blocked site, you will be redirected to the StayFocusd website, where you will be made to feel very guilty for trying to waste time when you should be working.

  • When will I be allowed to browse blocked sites again, once my time has run out?

    Your allotted time will be reset once per date, at the Daily Reset Time. If you use up all your time early in the day, then you'll have to wait until the Daily Reset Time passes before you can browse blocked sites again.

  • How come every time I try to change the Max Allowed Time, it just reverts back to the previous value?

    At some point you probably clicked the "Prevent this page from creating additional dialogs" checkbox on one of the popups StayFocusd displays when you change your time. Try closing all Chrome windows, then restart Chrome. That should fix the issue.

  • Active Days/Hours

  • Can I turn StayFocusd off on weekends, or only run it on certain days?

    Yes. From the Options page, you can select the days during which you want StayFocusd to be active. If StayFocusd is already set to be active for the current day, you will not be able to deactivate it.

  • Can I set StayFocusd to only block sites during certain hours, like while I'm at work?

    Yes. On the Options page, you can set the hours during which you want StayFocusd to be active. The Active Hours apply to all of the Active Days. (There is not currently a way to set different hours for different days.)

  • I changed my Active Hours, but my changes didn't get saved. What happened?

    When you change your Active Hours, your change will not go into effect for a full 24 hours. This is to dissuade you from cheating -- you can't buy yourself more time just by resetting the Active Hours.

  • Why does the Time Remaining box in the popup say "inactive"?

    The "inactive" message means that today is not set as an Active Day, or that the current time is outside the Active Hours. You can update the Active Days or the Active Hours on the Options page.

  • Can I still block or allow sites while StayFocusd is inactive?

    Yes. Everything will work as usual. The only difference is that the StayFocusd timer will not count down during days/hours when the extension is inactive.

  • Daily Reset Time

  • What is the Daily Reset Time?

    StayFocusd gives you a limited amount of time per day to browse blocked websites. Once per day, the timer is reset, and your Time Remaining countdown is restored. The Daily Reset Time allows you to customize the time that this reset happens.

  • What's the best Daily Reset Time?

    It depends on your work/sleep habits. By default, the Daily Reset Time is set to midnight. However, if you're a night owl who works well past midnight, you may not want your timer to reset right in the middle of a productive late night. In that case, you can set the timer to reset in the very early morning, like 5:00 AM.

  • Why do I have to wait 24 hours before changes to the Daily Reset Time go into effect?

    The delay is there to prevent you from using the Daily Reset Time to cheat. If the setting took effect instantly, you could easily set the reset time to one minute after your Time Remaining runs out, therefore allowing continued access to blocked sites.

  • It looks like my time didn't reset -- it's still zero and I haven't even visited any blocked sites yet! What did I do wrong?

    This can sometimes happen if your Daily Reset Time is between your Active Hours (i.e. your Active Hours are 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and your Daily Reset Time is 4:00 PM.)

    To solve this problem, set your Daily Reset Time to a time after the end of your Active Hours. Using the example above, setting the Daily Reset Time to 5:01 PM would solve the problem.

    Note that it might take 24 hours for this solution to take effect.

  • The Nuclear Option

  • What is the Nuclear Option?

    The Nuclear Option is a way for you to block access to the entire Internet (optionally excluding your Allowed Sites) for as many hours as you specify. You can set it to start immediately, to kick in once you have exceeded your Max Time Allowed, or to start at a scheduled time. It can be set to run just today, every week day, or every single day. It can block entire sites, or just selected content: multimedia, forms, logins, and/or images.

  • What are some good ways to use the Nuclear Option?

    The most obvious use is to help you stay focused when you have a deadline approaching, whether it's a project for work, a homework assignment, a school test. Set the Nuclear Option for several hours starting right now, and all your attention can go towards the task at hand.

    It can also help people who find themselves staying up way too late goofing around on the Internet instead of sleeping. Set the Nuclear Option to kick in for a few hours every day around your bedtime, and you can break yourself of the late-night web surfing habits.

    If you're the type of person who loses a lot of time playing games on Facebook or watching videos on sites like YouTube or Hulu, blocking multimedia will prevent you from accessing that content.

    If you're the type who obsessively checks email, reads Facebook messages, or posts in forums or blog comments, blocking forms can help break you of that habit. Or you can just block logins, which will prevent you from entering a password on any sites that require a login. If you can't log in, you can't waste time there.

    (If there are other ways that the Nuclear Option has helped you, email support@stayfocusd.com and I'll add them to this list.)

  • How can I cancel the Nuclear Option?

    You can't. That's why it's called the Nuclear Option. Once you push that button, there's no turning back. You have to wait until the hours you entered expire. You can find the expiration date/time on the Options page.

  • Can I change the Nuclear Option once it's active?

    That depends. If you want to change the settings to make the Nuclear Option more restrictive (i.e. going from blocking just your blocked sites to blocking all sites), then yes. However, if you want to make the Nuclear Option more lenient, then no. You'll have to wait until the Nuclear Option expires before making the settings more lenient.

  • Can I set the Nuclear Option for less than an hour?

    Originally, no. However, some people pointed out they'd like to use the Nuclear Option for the Pomodoro Technique, so I made it possible to enter decimals. For example, if you want 30 minutes, just enter 0.5.

  • Why does the Time Remaining box in the popup say "nuclear"?

    That means that the Nuclear Option is in effect.

  • How do I know when the Nuclear Option expires so I can begin browsing websites again?

    You can find the expiration date/time on the Options page. If the nuclear option is active, the expiration date/time will be shown in red.

  • How does the Nuclear Option work in relation to my Active Days and Active Hours?

    It's completely unrelated. The Nuclear Option is typically used in special circumstances outside your normal day-to-day workflow, so it goes by its own rules.

  • How can I tell that the Nuclear Option is active?

    Well, the most obvious way is by seeing sites being blocked. You can also tell by the StayFocusd icon, which will turn into a yellow "radioactive" icon when the Nuclear Option is active. Also, the timer in the StayFocusd popup will read "nuclear."

  • Can you give me a warning before the Nuclear Option kicks in?

    If you set the Nuclear Option to start at a specific time, then you will get a desktop notification 5 minutes, 1 minutes, and 10 seconds before the Nuclear Option starts blocking sites.

  • I set the Nuclear Option to block images, but not all images are blocked. What gives?

    StayFocusd blocks img tags, which is what most sites use for images. However, some images -- such as the thumbnails in Facebook photo galleries -- are displayed using the background-image css property. Blocking that requires processing that could slow down some websites, so I'm letting those slip.

  • How come I can still catch a glimpse of images/video/etc. before StayFocusd blocks them?

    StayFocusd has to wait until the page finishes loading before looking for images to block. Some sites load more slowly than others, resulting in a small lag between the image being loaded and StayFocusd being able to block it. I'll keep looking for ways to make this faster though -- it might be possible to find a clever solution.

  • Blocked/Allowed Sites

  • What happens if I'm on a blocked site and I minimize the browser, or switch to another program?

    If you minimize the browser or switch to another program, StayFocusd will continue to deduct from your allotted time for up to 5 minutes. If there is no activity in your browser -- no typing and no mouse movement -- after 5 minutes, then the site will be visually blocked with an overlay asking if you're still there. As long as this overlay is visible, the countdown will be paused and no additional time will be deducted. When you return to the site after being away, you can clear the overlay by clicking a link or pressing any key. At that point, the countdown will resume.

  • How do I know when I'm on a blocked/allowed site?

    When you're on a blocked site, the StayFocusd icon will turn red. When the site is allowed, the icon will turn green. If the site is neither blocked nor allowed, the icon will remain blue.

  • Is there any way to block or allow multiple sites at once?

    You betcha. On the Options page, you'll find text boxes where you can input multiple sites to block or allow. Just add one site per line. Leave off the http:// and the www (unless you only want to block www and not the rest of the subdomains).

  • How do I sync my Blocked Sites and Allowed Sites between different computers?

    StayFocusd does this by default, using Chrome's built-in sync feature. You must be signed into Chrome in order for this to work. You can sign in by clicking the Wrench icon and selecting "Sign in to Chrome."

  • What if I don't want to sync my Blocked Sites and Allowed Sites?

    Just check the Disable Sync box in the Customize tab on the Options page. When sync is disabled, your settings are stored locally on your computer. The changes you make will not show up on your other computers, and vice versa.

    Note that the Disable Sync setting itself doesn't get synced, so you'll need to disable sync on each computer you don't want to sync.

  • What happens to my Blocked Sites and Allowed Sites if I re-enable sync after it has been disabled?

    StayFocusd will add whatever sites are on your local computer's lists to the lists stored by Chrome Sync. If you have sync enabled on other devices, this will result in your local sites showing up on your other synced devices. If you don't have sync enabled elsewhere, then your local sites will be added to whatever sites were in the synced list before you disabled sync.

  • How do I remove sites from the Blocked Sites or Allowed Sites lists?

    Just visit the Options page and click the sites you want to remove. If your time has run out for the day, then you'll have to wait until tomorrow before you are allowed to remove blocked sites.

  • Can I hide the "allow" links in the popup, so I'm not tempted to use them to cheat?

    Yes. Visit the Options page and check the "Hide all links in popup which let you allow sites" box.

  • What is the Stalker Option?

    The Stalker Option is designed to follow you when you visit links clicked from blocked sites. Sites like Reddit, Feedly, and RSS readers are notorious time-wasters, and blocking them doesn't do much good. The problem is, you don't waste a lot of time on the sites themselves. Instead, you waste time visiting the sites they link to. You might spend 5 minutes on Reddit, and 5 hours on sites you clicked from there.

    The Stalker Option solves this problem by keeping your countdown running whenever you're visiting sites via links from blocked sites.

    For example, if you have Reddit blocked, and you click a link to Wikipedia from there, time will be deducted while you're on Wikipedia ... even though Wikipedia isn't a blocked site. And if you click a link from Wikipedia to yet another site, the timer will still keep running. As long as your click path ultimately leads back to a blocked site, time will be deducted.

  • How do I disable the Stalker Option?

    Just visit the Options page and uncheck the box in the Stalker Option sidebar. You can't disable this option once your Max Allowed Time has been exceeded for the day.

  • How do I permanently hide the infobar that slides down from the top of sites to tell me time is still counting down?

    Just visit the Options page and check the "Never show infobar" box under Customize Infobar.

  • Why is the countdown running even when I'm not on a blocked site?

    If you have the Stalker Option activated, your countdown will continue counting down whenever you're on a site that you reached by clicking a link from a blocked site.

  • Help! StayFocusd is blocking a site I need for work/school/etc. It's not on my Blocked Sites list ... why is it blocked? How do I access it?

    Sometimes the Stalker Option will block a site you weren't expecting it to block. The easiest thing to do is to disable the Stalker Option from the Blocked Sites tab.

  • Require Challenge

  • What is the purpose of the Require Challenge setting?

    In general, StayFocusd is designed to prevent you from changing your settings to give yourself more time. However, if you really want to make it hard on yourself, you can turn on the Require Challenge setting to block easy access to the settings altogether.

  • What is the "difficult, but not impossible" challenge?

    When Require Challenge is turned on, you will be required to type a short paragraph into a text box. The catch is, you must type it perfectly, letter-for-letter, from start to finish, without making a single mistake. That means no typos, no backspace, no delete, no cut-and-paste. If you mistype even one letter, the whole thing blanks out, and you have to start over.

  • Is there any way to bypass the challenge so I can start the Nuclear Option or reduce my Maximum Time Allowed?

    When the Require Challenge overlay appears, look in the lower right corner for a link that reads, "I want to change settings so I can be more productive". Clicking that will let you access a limited subset of options -- only those which will limit your browsing more, not less.

  • I accidentally clicked Require Challenge -- how do I turn it off?

    There's no way to disable the challenge without completing it successfully.

  • Can I customize the text in the Require Challenge box?

    You can, but your custom text must be at least as long as the default challenge text, and it must be in English. It must also be sufficiently complex -- you can't just enter a long string of "aaaaaaaaaaaaa" and expect it to work. To customize the challenge, visit the Options page.

  • Credits

  • Who developed this awesome extension?

    StayFocusd was developed by Warren Benedetto at Transfusion Media, an interactive product development and design studio based in Southern California.

  • Getting Help

  • How do I contact you if I'm having problems or need help with StayFocusd?


    Things you should do (pick one):

    • Submit a support request via the Chrome Web Store
    • Email support@stayfocusd.com
    • Send a tweet to @stayfocusd

    Things you shouldn't do:

    • Ask for help in a Chrome Web Store review. There's no way for me to respond to you there.
    • Post a negative review to the Chrome Web Store. Give me a chance to help you before you go and crush my soul with your hatemouth.
    • Leave me a voicemail accusing me of being a CIA agent who is blocking Facebook as part of a vast racist conspiracy (yes, this really happened).