A website blocker when you have ADHD
If the gap between intention and action is where things fall apart for you, a tool that tests your intention at the worst moment is the wrong tool.
Choose blocking that removes the decision rather than presenting it. Scheduled blocks that start without you, short cool-downs that outlast an impulse, and no easily-clicked off switch to negotiate with.
Why the off switch is the problem
A blocker with an instant pause is not a block, it is a prompt that asks "are you sure?" at the precise moment you are least equipped to answer it well.
A delay changes the question entirely. It is no longer "can I resist this" but "is this worth waiting fifteen minutes for", and by the time fifteen minutes have passed the impulse has usually moved on.
Automate the start
Remembering to switch on a focus mode is itself the kind of task that goes missing. Schedules matter more here than anywhere else, because a block that starts by itself needs nothing from you at the moment it starts.
Set it once, in a calm moment, and stop relying on remembering.
Why a schedule beats a timer you have to start
Most focus tools ask you to begin a session. That single requirement is what makes them a poor fit here, because starting the thing that helps you start is the same class of task as the one you were already stuck on.
A schedule removes that step. The block begins because the clock said so, not because you remembered, judged the moment correctly and acted on it. Nothing depends on you noticing you are about to drift, which is the notice that tends not to arrive until forty minutes later.
The same logic argues against anything that asks you to estimate how long you will need. If keeping track of elapsed time is not a strength, a tool built around predicting it is asking for the one thing you came to it without.
Hyperfocus cuts both ways
The stereotype is that attention is always scattered. Plenty of people find the opposite is the expensive half: five hours vanish into something absorbing, and it is not always the work.
A blocker only helps here if it can end a session as well as protect one. A schedule with a defined finish does that; an open-ended block does not, because there is no moment where anything changes and prompts you to look up.
It is also worth blocking the things that most reliably swallow a whole evening rather than the things that steal five minutes. The five-minute distractions are irritating. The five-hour ones are what actually rearrange a week.
Be realistic about the settings
Over-restrictive rules get torn down within a week and take the whole system with them. Start with the two or three worst things during the two or three worst hours.
A modest setup you keep beats a strict one you abandon on the first bad day.
There is a particular trap in setting rules while you are frustrated with yourself. Restrictions chosen in that mood tend to be punitive rather than practical, they are experienced as a punishment the moment they bite, and being cornered by your own settings is a reliable way to end the whole experiment. Set them on an ordinary day instead.
Sources
Where the claims on this page come from. We link to health services, professional bodies and published research rather than to other blocker vendors or to ourselves.
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) NHSCited for: What ADHD is and where to get an assessment. This page is a practical tool guide, not clinical guidance.
Common questions
Is this a treatment for ADHD?
What cool-down should I use?
Will blocking help me start a task, or only stay on one?
I keep forgetting to turn the blocker on. Is that fixable?
Related guides
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