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Regular Expressions (RegEx) let you match patterns instead of exact strings. A single RegEx entry can block entire categories of sites or apps.

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Enabling RegEx

The RegEx checkbox on a website entry in the Plan Wizard

When adding a website or application entry in the Plan Wizard:
  1. Enter your pattern in the text field
  2. Check the RegEx box on that entry
  3. FocusMe will treat the entry as a regular expression instead of a literal string
If you forget to check the RegEx box, FocusMe treats your pattern as a plain text match. The entry won’t work as expected.
FocusMe’s RegEx matching is always case-insensitive — you don’t need to add (?i) to your patterns.

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Essential Patterns

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Word Boundaries

Use \b to match whole words only:
Matches: store.steampowered.com Does not match: upstream.example.com (because “steam” is part of “upstream”)

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OR Matching

Use | (pipe) to match any of several options:
Matches any URL or title containing “reddit”, “tiktok”, or “instagram”.

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Combining Patterns

This single entry blocks all major social media platforms. Note that . is escaped as \. in x\.com because . in RegEx matches any character.

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Practical Examples

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Block All Gaming Platforms

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Block All News Sites

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Block YouTube Shorts and Reels

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Block All Subdomains of a Domain

Matches example.com, www.example.com, mail.example.com, etc.

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RegEx Quick Reference

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Common Mistakes

  1. Forgetting the RegEx checkbox — your pattern is treated as plain text
  2. Unescaped dots — google.com in RegEx matches googleXcom too. Use google\.com
  3. Too broad a pattern — game blocks game.com but also gamestop.com and any URL with “game” in it. Use word boundaries \b to be precise
  4. Testing — try your pattern on a site like regex101.com before adding it to FocusMe