u/Icy-prime-

Hey everyone,

Like a lot of students and professionals, I rely heavily on Edge for my research and daily workflow. However, I found myself constantly getting derailed by YouTube Shorts and algorithmic feeds when I was supposed to be studying.

I looked into a few website blockers, but I was frustrated by the options. Many of them required monthly subscriptions just to hide a webpage element, and worse, a lot of them required cloud accounts or tracked my browsing data.

I wanted something lightweight and entirely private, so I spent the last few weeks building my own solution from scratch using vanilla HTML, CSS, and JS.

It’s called FocusFlow, and I just published it for free on the Edge Add-ons store. It is 100% local, meaning your browsing data never leaves your device—zero tracking and zero data collection.

Here is how I set it up to keep me in "the zone":

• Smart Distraction Blocker: It instantly blocks YouTube Shorts and distracting feeds while keeping your actual search and study materials completely accessible.
• Visual Time Tracking: It has a clean donut chart that shows exactly where your minutes went today versus all-time.
• Premium Pomodoro Timer: I built in a customizable focus timer with a glowing ring that slowly fills up as your session progresses.
• Self-Control PIN Lock: To keep myself honest, I added a 4-digit PIN lock screen so I can't accidentally (or intentionally) skip a focus session.

It also includes dark and light themes, and everything runs seamlessly directly within Edge.

I’m sharing it here because I know how distracting the modern web is, and I wanted to offer a free alternative to the paid apps out there. If anyone in the community wants to try it out, I would love your feedback on what features or specific site-blocking capabilities I should add next!