Plan Wizard - Rule Types

In this tutorial we are going to be using the Focus Plan Wizard to explore the Rule Type Section. On initial review you will notice three options that FocusMe allows for rule types, including Just Block, Time Limit, and Launch Limit.

The Just Block rule type strictly enforces your websites and applications rules whenever it is active.

The Time Limit rule type allows a user to specify a set amount of time each hour, day, week, or month that they will have access to the websites and applications targeted by the plan.

And finally, the most advanced rule type is the Launch Limit, which limits your launches (or maximum use time) of your chosen websites or applications on a daily basis.

________

To start, let’s select the Just Block option.  Click on the next button in the bottom right.  You will notice the next page contains a statement that this rule type will block your chosen websites and applications when it is active.

Go ahead and click change rule type, as we would like to explore the other two options before moving on.

________

Now that we are back on the rule type page with the three options go ahead and click on the Time Limit option.  Note that this will automatically uncheck the Just Block option, as only one rule type can be active at any time.  Now go ahead and click next and we’re going to explore the options under this rule type.

You should now see a screen with the header Rule Type Time Limit and a description regarding setting a time limit for your chosen websites and applications.  You will see two options that include Time Period and Time Allowed.  You are able to specify a set number of hours and minutes that you will have access to your chosen websites and applications on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis.  You will notice the time allowed selector has a plus and a minus button.  You’re able to increase the time limit by one-minute increments using this option.  Or if you highlight the entire selection like I’m doing this video you can enter in a custom number much faster.  For example, let’s say we would like to allow 30 hours in one month. In the time period selector, we will go ahead and choose the Per Month option.  Now under the time allowed, let’s select the entire contents and type THREE, ZERO ZERO ZERO.  We have just set a time limit of 30 hours per month.  From here we could continue on to the next panel, but we would like to go back and explore the final rule type option.  So, go ahead and click the green Change Type link.

As before go ahead and click the Launch Limit option, and you will notice the Time Limit option will automatically uncheck.  Now go ahead and click next and we will explore this rule type.

Under the rule type launch limit screen, you will see three separate rows to customize this rule type.  You can specify maximum launches per day, maximum use time per launch, minimum break time after launch. You might be wondering what a ‘launch’ is! A launch will automatically begin whenever you open one of your chosen applications or websites. The launch will continue to run for the duration of the ‘maximum use time per launch’, so you can leave and return to the app or website as much as you like during that time. After the ‘maximum use time per launch’ has been reached the ‘minimum break time after launch’ will kick-in automatically, meaning you must take a break from using your chosen websites or applications during this time. FocusMe will block them for you during the break time. The Launch Limit rule type is commonly used with the Daily/Weekly Schedule Mode, which we will address in the next video in the series.

Before we leave though, we would like to make a sample entry into the launch limit screen.  We would like to set the parameters at five launches per day and 15 minutes per launch, with a 30 minute break.  Okay, we got the information entered.  Normally a user would continue on with the next button to start setting schedule parameters within the schedule mode, but we will cover that next

Thank you for joining us on this video and we look forward to seeing you in the next video entitled “Plans – Schedule Modes”.