For the past few weeks I've been working on a Google Chrome extension I've called Focus App. I finally finished version 1.0, which is live on the Chrome Web Store right now.

When I'm working I find myself, without even realizing it, opening sites like Facebook or Reddit. I decided that I wanted Building something to help solve this problem. So I made Focus App.

When you first install Focus App to Google Chrome, it doesn't actually do anything. You first have to tell it what sites you want to block.

There's a couple of ways to do this. The first is to build your list manually. Just open the popup by clicking the icon that was added in the upper right hand corner of your browser when the extension was installed. Then click settings which will bring up a page that has an input box and a Block Site button. In that box you just enter the domain of the site you want to block, such as facebook.com, and hit enter or the Block Site button. The site will then be displayed alongside any other sites you've blocked just below that input, with an option to remove it from the list.

The second way to block a site is just to hit the Block Site button in the popup while browsing. When this button is clicked, the extension will find the root domain of the site that you're on and add it to your list of blocked sites. For instance, if you're on reddit.com/r/pics and you hit the Block Site button, it will add reddit.com to your list.

Creating the list of blocked sites is only the first part of using the extension. The second part is to actually block these websites. To start blocking sites aka start focusing, just open the popup and hit the toggle switch. This will start blocking all of the sites in your list and update the extension icon in the upper right hand corner to give some visual feedback that the extension is on and working.

This is just version 1.0 of the extension, I have more features that I plan to add in the future such as a schedule section to block sites during a specific time of day automatically. If you have any suggestion for features or if you experience any bugs, feel free to shoot me an email at me@levizitting.com.