The Problem: Digital Distractions Are Costing You Hours
Studies show the average knowledge worker loses 2.1 hours per day to digital distractions. Social media, news sites, and YouTube become black holes that consume our focus.
I built FocusGuard — a free Chrome extension that not only blocks distracting sites but helps you build mindful browsing habits with built-in breathing exercises.
What FocusGuard Does
Smart Site Blocking
FocusGuard lets you create a blocklist of distracting websites. When you try to visit a blocked site, instead of a boring blocked page, you get a calming interface with options:
- Breathing exercise: A guided 60-second breathing animation to reset your focus
- Quick reflection: A gentle prompt asking whether you really need this right now
- Temporary bypass: Need to check something work-related on Twitter? Grant yourself 5 minutes
Focus Sessions
Start a timed focus session (25, 50, or 90 minutes). During the session:
- All blocklisted sites are enforced
- A subtle indicator shows remaining time
- Session stats are tracked for your weekly review
The Breathing Exercise Feature
This is what makes FocusGuard different from every other site blocker. Instead of just blocking and frustrating you, it offers a 4-7-8 breathing pattern:
- Breathe in for 4 seconds
- Hold for 7 seconds
- Breathe out for 8 seconds
After completing the exercise, most users find they no longer want to visit the distracting site. The urge passes.
Technical Highlights
FocusGuard is built with:
- Manifest V3 — fully compliant with Chrome's latest extension platform
- TypeScript for type safety across the entire codebase
- Vite for fast development builds
- Chrome Alarms API for session timing without a persistent background page
Why declarativeNetRequest?
In MV3, the old webRequest blocking API is gone. We use for site blocking, which gives us:
- Native rule evaluation (faster than JavaScript-based blocking)
- No need for a persistent background service worker
- Automatic rule matching without wake-ups
Storage Architecture
We split storage across three tiers:
- chrome.storage.session — focus session state (cleared on browser close)
- chrome.storage.sync — user preferences like blocklist and schedule (synced across devices)
- chrome.storage.local — historical stats and analytics (persisted locally)
This means your blocklist follows you across devices, but temporary session state stays clean.
Privacy First
FocusGuard collects zero personal data. No accounts, no servers, no tracking. Everything runs locally in your browser. The only network request is an anonymous analytics ping (which you can disable).
Results After 30 Days of Personal Use
After using FocusGuard daily for a month:
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Daily distraction time | 2.1 hours | 0.4 hours |
| Breathing exercises completed | — | 127 |
| Sites unblocked after breathing | — | 12% |
| Focus sessions completed | — | 89 |
The breathing exercise is surprisingly effective. 88% of the time, completing the exercise was enough to break the impulse to visit a distracting site.
Getting Started
- Install FocusGuard from the Chrome Web Store
- Click the extension icon and add sites to your blocklist
- Start a focus session or just browse — blocked sites will redirect to the breathing exercise
- Review your weekly stats to track improvement
What Users Are Saying
FocusGuard has helped developers, students, and remote workers reclaim their focus. The breathing exercise approach resonates because it treats distraction as a habit to redirect, not a behavior to punish.
Try It Free
FocusGuard is completely free with no account required. Your data stays in your browser, always.
Install FocusGuard from Chrome Web Store
Built by S-Hub — we build Chrome extensions for developers and productivity enthusiasts.