Discover how FocusMe blocks sites, limits apps, and integrates Pomodoro to maximize productivity. Learn about pricing, phone support, and more.

FocusMe Functionality Overview

At first glance, FocuseMe seemed too complicated and confusing. It felt like an app for computer geeks. However, if you spend up to 5 minutes familiarizing yourself with it, you’ll see that it’s actually not that difficult to use.

The main screen is quite cluttered, but again, give yourself a few minutes and you’ll get it. The app greets us with a standard list of 9 items they call “Plans” that cover most scenarios of computer distractions:

Block Internet

This mode simply blocks all selected apps and websites when activated. It can be customized, for example, to choose the type of blocking:

There are 4 blocking approaches available in FocusMe app:

Stay focused

This blocks specific websites or apps during an active session. I’d call it the classic mode. However, I wouldn’t recommend it for users who are just starting their productivity journey. Initially, it might be tough. I’d start with the time limit.

Time Limit

This mode allows you to limit the time spent on a particular app or site. This mode, in my opinion, is suitable for beginners. It doesn’t ban but limits, which is psychologically easier and important for the long run. After all, our goal is to become better for life, not just to have three productive sessions and then give up.

Train Habits

I love this feature. It’s much more important than it might seem at first glance. This option limits the number of times you can open an app or website during a session, building discipline and the habit of not checking, for example, email every 10 minutes.

Screen Breaks

Imagine you’ve been watching YouTube videos for over an hour or playing your favorite game longer than intended. Screen Breaks from FocusMe will remind you if you’ve been at the computer longer than you wanted. It’s the mildest option, useful for those who don’t like strict bans and have enough self-control to stop procrastinating after a reminder. However, in my experience, you might eventually start ignoring these notifications.

Block Computer

If you need breaks from the computer, there’s a “Block Computer” mode. You might wonder why you need this if you want to boost productivity. The answer is simple – rest. You can’t be productive without breaks, and by rest, I don’t mean watching YouTube or Facebook. This feature allows you to block the computer for scheduled activities like sports, walks, reading books, etc., or simply to take a lunch break and rest from gadgets.

Block Site

If you want to add a site to be blocked, you’ll be offered recently visited sites, which is very convenient. You can also choose what happens if you try to access a blocked site during an active session:

Show Block Page

A block page will be displayed. A standard approach for such apps.

Close Tab

If you try to open a blocked page, the tab with the blocked site will simply close. This strict approach can cause negative emotions and be slightly annoying but effective. Reflect on your feelings; if it irritates you too much, choose another approach to avoid risking quitting the app.

Open New Tab

If you try to open a blocked site, you’ll be redirected to a new empty tab.

Go Home

When you try to visit a site added to the blacklist, you’ll automatically be redirected to your browser’s homepage.

Block App

A similar approach applies to blocking apps and games. If you have apps that distract you, they must be added to the blacklist to avoid constant distractions. Examples include a computer game, a crypto trading program, or any other app you spend too much time on and want to regulate your relationship with. The app block offers three block methods:

Minimize

FocusMe will minimize the blocked app, allowing it to run without disrupting existing settings or achievements, but you won’t be able to use it until the session ends. After the session, the app will return to the same state it was in when minimized.

Close

This closes the app, but if it has such functionality, it will continue running in the background.

Kil

The strictest mode, it forces the app to close. Not recommended for important programs without auto-save functionality.

Set Timing Mode (Timer) in FocusMe

At this stage, you’ll be offered the session duration:

There’s nothing unusual here. Be cautious with session durations. It’s better to start with short sessions consistently than to have 5-hour sessions and quickly burn out. Remember, you need to develop a habit. So, I’d suggest starting with an hour-long session. If it’s too hard, don’t hesitate to reduce the time to 30 or 45 minutes.

Protection

This page is entirely dedicated to avoiding the limits you’ve set.

Set your protection for this plan

The section Set your protection for this plan deserves special attention.

It has several levels of session protection:

None

You can cancel the session at any time without any obstacles. This risky approach doesn’t align with the principle of making bad habits as inconvenient as possible.

Random Characters

My favorite approach. To change session settings or stop it, you must enter random characters, which can’t be copied and pasted, a smart detail by the developers.

Custom Password

Not recommended, as passwords are easy to remember and you’ll quickly type them in a few seconds.

Forced

Hardcore mode. You can’t stop or change the settings until the session is over. FocusMe will ask if you’re sure about what you’re doing, and I’d advise reading more about this feature. Depending on previous settings, you might lose control of your computer for the session duration, which could be very inconvenient. Use this mode only if you’re 100% aware of the consequences.

Stop Delay When Active

This option delays stopping the session, training patience.

Pausing

This allows pausing the session when active. Settings are similar to stopping a session. I’d recommend setting random characters to pause a session.

Plan Information

At the end of the settings, you can make final adjustments, like notifications about the start or end of a session, account synchronization, or displaying a timer.

But the most interesting option is Punish Me! (Websites)

This punishes attempts to interrupt a session by turning off the internet. You can set the number of attempts before punishment, the duration of session interruption, and the punishment duration.

A very cool and unique feature. Honestly, I haven’t seen this in any other similar app.

Social Media

This mode in FocusMe is tailored to block all social media-related sites. If social media is your main source of distraction and procrastination, like me, pay attention to this mode. The default Block List includes:

• facebook
• x.com
• instagram
• youtube
• pinterest
• reddit
• quora
• tinder
• tumblr
• snapchat
• whatsapp
• and slack.

I have specific questions about the last two, as Slack is mostly a work messenger. But you can easily remove any of these domains or add your own. Personally, I miss TikTok on this list.

The blocking options are the same as for regular sites:

The default setting for Social Media is entering 8 random characters to stop interruptions. Social media sites are blocked during an active focus session.

Time Limit News

Unlike the news limit. Here, a different restriction applies:

You can read news only for 5 minutes every hour. This is a great option, training you to quickly review news without completely banning it. From my experience, this is the best option. But I’d allocate 30-40 minutes once after work for news. As a pleasant bonus, you can request a free custom Plan at the end of this article, specifying your preferences, name, and email.

Train Email Habits

A good option for those constantly checking email. This plan blocks the most popular email services and the Outlook domain. It operates on the principle: 5 minutes of use, 15 minutes of prohibition, and a maximum of 10 sessions per day. But again, you can easily change this.

Pomodoro Focus

Pomodoro needs no introduction. It’s a well-known work sprint methodology consisting of 25 minutes of active work and a 5-minute break. I always use this methodology. It helps avoid burnout and maintain energy. Highly recommend trying it if you haven’t yet. In the FocusMe Pomodoro plan, all apps are blocked during an active session except Notepad and a few others. I find this quite strict, as I see nothing wrong with listening to music during a productive session, so I added it to the whitelist, along with Chrome.

As for the remaining plans: Block Adult Sites, Block Steam Games, Fixed Break, and Auto Break 5m/1hr – there’s nothing fundamentally new, just different combinations of already described features.

If you’re interested in exploring another excellent tool for boosting focus and blocking distractions, check out our detailed Freedom.to app review.

Creating the Perfect Work Schedule with FocusMe

So, how long does it take to create the perfect work schedule reflecting my usual workday and considering all its nuances?

Let’s try to create such settings based on my daily routine requirements:

No social media until 5 PM.

No news until 5 PM.

Lunch break from 12 to 2 PM with no laptop use.

Exercise from 8 to 9 AM with no laptop access.

14 active Pomodoro sessions a day.

One coffee break at 11:45 AM.

In my opinion, I don’t need punishments as they don’t work for me.

So, how long does it take to build the perfect schedule with FocusMe?

It took me 15 minutes.

Since it’s not my first day with FocusMe, it might take you a bit longer, about 20 minutes.

Now, step by step:

Using FocusMe’s Pre-Configured Plans

I used existing Plans and customized them for myself. Now my settings screen looks like this: 

To cover all my needs, I have 5 active Plans simultaneously, visible on the right. Yes, they need to be combined as it’s impossible to cover all needs with one plan.

Creating Your Weekly Schedule

Each Plan in FocusMe allows creating a daily schedule, exactly what we need.

Since I don’t work on weekends, I chose Monday to Friday (available in Presets), activated Auto Enable Plan Daily – this activates the plan every day you selected. Highly recommend this option to form a habit and avoid forgetting to activate the plan.

These settings can be activated by double-clicking the Schedule of the desired plan from the main page.

Available for all plans.

Setting Session Schedules

To set session schedules, go to the session settings:

Select the Plan type from the Schedule

Then choose the necessary days:

Next, use the slider or manually enter the hours when you want the session to be active:

For example, here I set a social media ban every working day from 06:00 to 17:00.

I chose 06:00 to avoid the temptation of checking them in the morning.

If You Need to Interrupt Urgently

I allow myself to make emergency pauses. To avoid unnecessary interruptions, I set Random characters with at least 15 random characters and Perfect Entry. This makes frequent unnecessary pauses almost impossible, which is inconvenient in a good sense.

Pomodoro Timer by FocusMe

Absolutely wonderful Pomodoro implementation by the FocusMe team. As of now, it’s the best Pomodoro timer integration I’ve seen, with all necessary settings, even the duration of the long break and after how many Pomodoro sessions it will be activated.

Pomodoro count

Here you set the number of Pomodoros you want to do per day. I usually do 14 Pomodoros a day, almost 6 hours of focused time. This is average, and I’m still working to increase the number of sessions, aiming for 19 Pomodoros or 8 hours.

Pomodoro duration

The standard duration of one Pomodoro is 25 minutes. Some prefer longer or shorter sessions. Over time, you’ll either get used to 25-minute sessions or find the duration that suits you best.

Short break duration

After each 25-minute session, there’s a 5-minute break. This is the classic approach, but you can experiment, e.g., 30-minute sessions with a 10-minute break, etc.

Pomodoro’s per set

Pomodoro’s per set is how many 25-minute sessions you want in one set.

Long break duration

After each set, there’s a longer break, defaulting to 10 minutes, but I always take a 15-minute break as I need more time to recover.

Scheduled start

Here you set when you want to start Pomodoro sessions. I set it at 9 AM when I usually start working.

Blank screen during breaks

Here you choose what you want to see between sessions, usually a full-screen screensaver describing the current stage of the Pomodoro process.

FocusMe Pros

An incredibly powerful app that allows full control over your computer behavior. It has built-in sets for various cases. In my opinion, it’s one of the best desktop apps of its kind.

Great set of pre-configured settings

There are about 9 pre-configured sets covering almost all possible computer behavior scenarios.

Amazing number of settings

You can customize everything from session types to the number of characters needed to make an unscheduled pause during an active session. You can enable auto-start, plan breaks, combine different plans, block or allow specific sites, apps, categories, etc. There’s no scenario this app hasn’t covered.

Pomodoro Mode

Especially want to highlight the Pomodoro settings from FocusMe.

Great implementation with all possible settings. I use it constantly.

FocusMe Drawbacks

Despite its unmatched functionality and excellent desktop version, this app, unfortunately, has some drawbacks.

Skewed statistics

What really disappointed me is the app usage statistics issue.

Firstly, all your tabs on the laptop are always counted as active.

It shows that I used the computer for 2,000 hours in 3 days, out of 74 possible.

I’d summarize that the statistics are meaningless, so you can consider that they don’t exist in this app. Hopefully, this will be fixed in future releases.

Underdeveloped phone version

The functionality is generally the same as the desktop version, but there are no pre-configured plans, so ALL sites need to be entered manually, which is inconvenient.

Fortunately, you can choose apps from the list on your phone.

Otherwise, the functionality is the same. But be aware, the app is only available for Android.

FocusMe Price

FocusMe offers three main subscriptions: Monthly, Yearly, and Two-Year.

The longer the subscription, the cheaper it is.

Also, there’s a 2-week Free Trial to explore all the app’s features.

The Monthly subscription costs €7.95, an average price for such apps.

Yearly costs €47.45, which comes to €3.95 per month. If you like the app during the 2-week free trial, I’d recommend the yearly subscription. €47 for a year of productivity is a great price that will pay off. Plus, you save 50% every month.

FocusMe also offers discounts for students and teachers.

At the time of writing this review, there was an option to purchase Lifetime access for €279. However, this was described as a temporary offer.

FocusMe Summary

An excellent app with incredibly flexible settings and built-in Plans. In 15 minutes, you can cover all possible computer use scenarios. Set a clear schedule by days and hours, plan breaks, establish interaction with distracting apps as you wish, from gentle reminders to lock mode, where you can’t change anything.

FocusMe easily meets all your needs for MacOS and Windows, but there are issues with the mobile Android version. It’s quite raw but still functional. If you have an iPhone, there’s no mobile solution yet.

Who is this app ideal for?

For those who need to cover all possible computer distraction scenarios and for whom the primary source of distractions is computer apps and sites. For those who need the most flexible computer functionality on the market and for those who use the Pomodoro technique.

Who isn’t it suitable for?

Not suitable for those whose primary source of distractions is apps and sites on an iPhone. And to a lesser extent for Android users. The Android version is inconvenient but workable.

Also, not suitable for those who need to see their achievements’ statistics.

FAQ

Does FocusMe have a mobile version?

Yes, it has a mobile version for Android. There’s no iOS version.

There’s a 2-week free trial, after which prices start at €2.89 per month.

Is FocusMe legit?

Yes. FocusMe is a reputable productivity app with robust features like site/app blocking, Pomodoro integration, and flexible scheduling options.

How does FocusMe work?

FocusMe lets you block or limit specific apps and websites using custom schedules, timers, and protection settings. It also includes a built-in Pomodoro timer for structured work sessions.