Freedom.to Overview
Focus Mode in the Freedom.to app is a powerful feature designed to help you boost your productivity by minimizing distractions. This mode allows you to create a dedicated time period during which specific websites and applications are blocked, ensuring that you can concentrate on your tasks without interruptions.
Why Focus Mode is Important
In today’s digital age, distractions are everywhere. Whether it’s social media notifications, news updates, or other online temptations, it can be challenging to maintain concentration on a single task. Focus Mode addresses this issue by creating a distraction-free environment, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in your work.
If you’re interested in another innovative approach to managing distractions, especially on mobile devices, check out our detailed OneSec app review.
How Focus Mode Enhances Productivity
Reduces Interruptions:
By blocking access to distracting sites and apps, Focus Mode eliminates the temptation to check social media, browse the web aimlessly, or engage in other non-productive activities.
Improves Time Management:
With the ability to schedule focus sessions, you can plan your day more effectively. This helps in creating a structured routine, making it easier to allocate specific times for focused work.
Enhances Deep Work:
Deep work, which involves long periods of uninterrupted concentration, is essential for accomplishing complex tasks. Focus Mode facilitates this by ensuring that you remain undisturbed, allowing you to reach a state of flow and perform at your best.
Supports Habit Building:
Regular use of Focus Mode can help in building better work habits. Over time, you’ll find it easier to resist distractions and stay focused on your goals.
Tracks Progress:
The app’s session history feature lets you track how much time you spend in Focus Mode. This provides valuable insights into your productivity patterns and helps you identify areas for improvement.
Freedom app Extensions
The Freedom Browser Extension is a key feature of the Freedom.to productivity suite, designed to enhance your focus and efficiency by blocking distracting websites directly from your browser. This extension seamlessly integrates with popular web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, providing an additional layer of control over your online environment.
Key Features
Website Blocking:
The primary function of the Freedom Browser Extension is to block distracting websites. You can create customized blocklists to prevent access to specific sites during your focus sessions. This feature is particularly useful for blocking social media, news sites, and other online distractions that can derail your productivity.
Sync Across Devices:
The extension syncs with your Freedom account, ensuring that your settings and blocklists are consistent across all your devices. Whether you’re working on your desktop, laptop, or tablet, the Freedom Browser Extension helps maintain a distraction-free environment.
Scheduled Sessions:
You can schedule focus sessions directly from the browser extension. This allows you to plan your workday by setting specific times for focused work and breaks. The extension will automatically activate and deactivate website blocking according to your schedule.
Quick Access:
The extension provides quick access to your blocklists and session controls without needing to open the full Freedom app. This convenience makes it easier to start or adjust a focus session on the fly.
Locked Mode:
For those who need an extra level of commitment, the Locked Mode prevents you from making changes to your blocklists or turning off the extension during an active session. This ensures that you stay focused and don’t succumb to the temptation of disabling the blocker.
A closer look at the Freedom.to app
After installing the application, you will see this logo at the top of your MacBook:
Also, of course, you can add Freedom.to to the dock for quick access, but entering the menu will still occur by clicking on the butterfly icon.
When you click on this icon, the following menu will appear:
The menu is very intuitive, so we won’t go into it in detail.
I just want to note that when you click on Launch Dashboard, a browser opens.
All settings, statistics, etc., are handled in the browser. This, in my opinion, is a bit odd. It undoubtedly reduces development costs and probably lowers the subscription price.
As a result, without the internet, you can’t access the menu, which means that essentially, without the internet, the application won’t work. At least, you can’t launch it. Keep this in mind if you want to use this timer with the internet turned off.
However, if you lose your internet connection during a focus session, it’s not a problem. After the internet is restored, the timer will automatically sync and display the correct time.
So, what functionality does Freedom.to app offer?
In the main menu, we see several sections:
My devices
Here, all of your devices where you’ve installed Freedom will be displayed, as well as the option to edit their names, add new devices, or remove existing ones.
Options
Here, you can activate or deactivate Lock Mode, which controls whether you can make changes while a session is active.
Personal tip based on experience:
If you’ve only just started working on improving your productivity, I wouldn’t recommend enabling this feature right away. It can be too stressful; you’ll spend a lot of your internal resources fighting the temptation to visit certain websites. This could ultimately lead you to abandon the idea of increasing your productivity altogether.
Remember:
Working on your productivity isn’t a sprint—it’s a marathon. It’s better to take a short break than to quit entirely.
Focus sound
Freedom.to offers background sounds to help you focus.
Currently, the playlist consists of 6 categories: Coffee Shops, Offices, Nature, Music (these are more like meditation melodies), Music from Brain.fm (monotone melodies that help you concentrate, my favorite), and Pomodoro melodies, which alternate every 25 minutes and 5 minutes.
In general, the Music, Music from Brain.fm, and Pomodoro sounds are quite similar.
Worth noting:
You can’t control the tracks via your headphones or keyboard hotkeys. There’s also no player integrated into the Freedom app itself. You have to go into the “Focus Sounds” popup menu to select a different track or press pause.
My Sessions
Here, you can set the duration for your focus session, schedule a session for a later time, or create a recurring session.
Here’s an example of recurring sessions:
Here, one morning session is created, lasting 4 hours, and an example of creating a second, afternoon session on weekdays is shown. However, you can create as many sessions as you like if you prefer to work with the Pomodoro technique or something similar.
Session History
At first glance, this inconspicuous section hides a few very useful features:
- You can see how long you’ve been focused over the course of a week. In my case, after just one day, I accumulated 59 minutes.
- You can add a comment to each session. In my opinion, this is very important because it allows you to reflect on how the session went—whether it was difficult or easy and why. Did you get distracted, or were you focused the entire time, and so on.
Freedom.to Blocker
Freedom Website Blocker
To block websites, you can use pre-existing lists or manually add domains. There is a built-in list that includes 145 domains, such as Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, and others. If needed, you can expand this list by adding new sites or new categories.
If you attempt to visit a website that’s on the blacklist, you will see this screen:
Personally, I really like it. It’s not aggressive, and there are no motivational speeches that increase your anxiety by making you feel like you’re not doing enough.
Instead, it’s a minimalist design with a calming phrase.
And if you add soothing music in the background, this stressful experience (because it truly is) of being “refused” is much easier to handle. You don’t feel like someone is forbidding you from doing something; rather, you feel gently protected.
Freedom App Blocker
Activating Freedom App Blocker: By default, if you just activate Block these distractions → Desktop Apps, nothing will happen, because by default, no application is selected.
Editing this list is not found in the Dashboard menu, where I initially looked for it, but rather in the menu accessible by clicking on the Freedom.to icon.
And then you can select all the applications you want to block during a Freedom session:
Don’t forget to click Save 🙂
Freedom Mobile
There is also a Freedom app for Android and iOS.
Its functionality is exactly the same as the desktop versions.
Example of how the app looks on Android:
Main Screen:
On the main screen, you can quickly start a new session or schedule the next one.
At the bottom, there’s a navigation menu that fully replicates the functionality of the desktop version, just implemented through the app.
I won’t go into detail because the functionality is exactly the same as on the computer. If you’re interested in more information specifically about the mobile app, feel free to ask in the comments.
For now, I’ll just leave some screenshots from the app so you can familiarize yourself with it:
Conclusion
Freedom.to is a comprehensive productivity tool designed to help users minimize digital distractions and maintain focus. Through features like Focus Mode, website and application blocking, scheduled sessions, and session tracking, the app effectively supports deep work and habit-building. Its browser extension further enhances focus by syncing blocklists across devices and offering quick access to session controls.
While Freedom.to’s web-based dashboard streamlines development and keeps costs lower, it also means the app relies heavily on an internet connection for most settings and statistics. Additionally, controlling focus sounds and music is somewhat limited, as it requires navigating through separate menus instead of using standard media keys. Despite these minor drawbacks, Freedom.to’s flexibility and cross-platform functionality make it a strong choice for anyone looking to improve time management, reduce online temptations, and develop more consistent, distraction-free work habits.
FAQ
What does the Freedom app do?
A: The Freedom app helps you block distracting websites and applications, schedule focus sessions, track your progress, and create a more productive, distraction-free working environment across your devices.
Can I delete the Freedom app?
Yes, you can remove the Freedom app at any time by uninstalling it from your device. On desktop, simply uninstall it via your system’s usual process (e.g., dragging it to the Trash on macOS or using “Add or Remove Programs” on Windows). On mobile, uninstall it like any other app from your device’s settings or app store.
What is the Freedom App for ADHD?
The Freedom App is a productivity tool that can be especially helpful for individuals with ADHD by blocking distracting websites and apps, scheduling dedicated focus sessions, and reducing interruptions. These features create a more structured environment that supports extended periods of concentration and improved time management.
Is Freedom App completely free?
Freedom offers a free trial period with limited features. To access all of the app’s features—like unlimited focus sessions, comprehensive website/app blocking, and additional premium tools—you’ll need a paid subscription plan.