Refocus: Block Apps & Websites

I’ve been really struggling with the amount of time I’m spending on my phone. It’s interfering with all aspects of my life. This app has helped me so much!! No more spending hours mindlessly scrolling on TikTok and then hating myself for it later 🥲. I love how you can even add an extra step so in order to unblock the app it makes you sit and think for second and breathe before you can fully unblock it. Best part is that all that is free! 🙌🏼. I hope they keep it free but even if they don’t, I’d be willing to pay. That’s how much I love this app 💗. Only downside is if you select multiple apps to block, they are all blocked and unblocked together. You can’t block one and not the other. If you pay for the premium I’m pretty sure it allows you select certain apps. So I’m considering that. Sometimes I want access to one blocked app but not the others. Also there’s no ads that I’ve seen which is crazy! Most free apps have tons of stupid ads. Thank you Refocus for not doing that!! 🙏🏼

I’ll be honest, I didn’t really consider myself a blockers person. I thought it was too hardcore, and it’d be too painful. Thanks to refocus though, I’ve realized that blockers are awesome, and you don’t have to go super monk mode to use them to the level you want. I’ll admit, I’ve changed the settings to unblock things more than a few times, but Refocus makes it easy to get back on track when we, inevitably and humanly, slip up. This app has saved me an unknowable amount of time over the months I’ve used it. Refocus just has so many great features—personally I didn’t have the control to always block things all the time, but Refocus allows me to have a number of app group opens, each for a certain amount of time that helps a TON with slowly easing into a life of a bit less technology, instead of expecting cold turkey from day 1. With its range of features varying in strictness, you can use Refocus to whichever degree or style you’d like. Personally I use it as an intentionality tool—just to make sure that I know for how long I’m opening an app, and Refocus reminds me when it’s time to stop that open so I don’t get sucked into the scroll-hole of doom. Thanks for everything, Refocus team! You’ve done a tremendous service to my life, and to the world. Rock on! And to anyone fighting for their time and lives back from algorithms, best of luck, and please be patient with yourself, forgive yourself when you mess up, and try to problem solve how you might prevent it in the future!

I used to just use screen time and have my boyfriend set my passcode but it was still too easy to ask for more time—I would just click “Ask for more time” and hand my phone over and my boyfriend would just put in the passcode. Now I use the free version of refocus to add an additional blocker on addicting apps and screen time my access to those apps AND refocus after 9pm to prevent late night doom scrolling. In order to access Instagram or tik tok I now have to ask my boyfriend to unblock refocus and then ask him to unblock the app itself from screen time, finally making it sufficiently annoying enough to make me think twice about using the apps. I don’t have screen time after 9pm on weekends but I still have refocus with a moderate time limit on extra addicting apps like Instagram and tik tok. This helps me live my life better by giving me more control over my ability to sleep and be present, and as an added bonus it gets me away from fixating on bizarre insecurities like “neck lines” that tend to get shoveled onto my algorithm in the name of selling more beauty products. If you don’t have a boyfriend who lives with you and you have impulse control as bad as mine (ADHD), I would guess that the premium version is worth a try or maybe ask a family member.