Focus Guard

Focus Guard is a mindful alternative to harsh site blockers.

When you open a distracting site, instead of a "Blocked!" wall, you land on a calm pause page: a breathing orb to slow your nervous system, a quiet prompt to set your intention, and a single button to close the tab. No yelling. No shame. Just a moment to choose differently.

WHAT IT DOES
• Intercepts the sites on your blocklist (default: Instagram, Twitter/X, Reddit) and replaces them with a calming pause page
• A 6-breath-per-minute resonant breathing animation, backed by research on parasympathetic activation (Lehrer & Gevirtz, 2014)
• Type your intention — "what will I do instead?" — and it surfaces on the toolbar
• Built-in focus block timer with a hard lock that ignores all snooze attempts
• Daily streak + reclaimed-time tracking (based on Mark et al. 2008 — 23 minutes lost per interruption)
• Quiet hours: pause blocking during specific times (e.g. lunch, evenings)

WHY IT'S DIFFERENT
Most blockers treat distraction as a willpower failure. Focus Guard treats it as a nervous-system pattern. The pause page gives your prefrontal cortex 30 seconds to come back online — which is usually all you needed.

PRIVACY
Everything stays on your device. No accounts. No analytics. No data leaves your browser. The full source is auditable in the extension folder.

PERMISSIONS
• tabs / webNavigation — to redirect blocked sites to the pause page
• storage — to save your blocklist, streak, and settings locally
• notifications — to tell you when a focus block is complete
• alarms — to keep your active intention visible in the toolbar

Built for anyone who wants to spend less time scrolling and more time doing.