How to use the Launch Limiter

FocusMe’s Launch Limiter is a unique feature that lets you limit the number of times you can launch (or visit) a website/app in a day, as well as limit the duration of use of the website/apps each time, and optionally enforce a break after each launch.

The first thing you do is either create a new plan or edit an existing one. To create a new plan, hit the “add plan” button on the upper right. To edit an existing plan, you can either right-click on the plan and select “Edit Plan” or hit the respective ellipsis on the right.

Type the name of the Focus plan (for editing existing plans, the name shows up here) then hit “Next”

On the next page, click on the “Add Site” button.

You can select the website/s in the History tab, where recent websites you’ve been to are listed:

Or manually input them in the Custom tab. Note: you can add more than one URL by hitting enter after each, as shown below:

Hit accept when done to add the item/s on the list. Then hit “Next”.

Do the same thing for the Applications tab (if you wish to block any applications) then click “Next”.

On the next page, choose “Launch Limit” as the Focus Type.

This lets you set a limit to how many times the apps/websites can be launched on a daily basis as well as how long they can be used and how long the wait is between launches.

Maximum launches per day – Sets the number of times the apps/websites can be launched on a daily basis.

Maximum use time per launch – Sets how long you can access a website/app every time it is launched.

Minimum break time after launch – Lets you set how long it takes before you can launch an app/website again after accessing it.

The example above gives you a maximum of 5 launches per day, with a time limit of 30 minutes for each launch. That means you can open an app/website included in the Focus plan for a maximum of 5 times for 30 minutes every launch. Once you’ve closed the app/website or reached the time limit, you will need to wait 2 hours before you can launch an app/website included in the plan again.

Once you’re done setting the launch limit, click “Next” to go to the Scheduling page (5/6).

For best results, pair up launch limit with Daily/Weekly scheduling mode.

Daily/Weekly Mode

Since version 7, the scheduling feature has been improved and made easier to setup.

Select the day/s you would like to set a schedule. Select multiple days to set the same schedule for all of them. Selecting all days will let you set the same schedule for the whole week.

– Days in gray are those that have no schedule yet.

– Click on a day to highlight it green, meaning it is selected. You can select multiple days to set their schedules at the same time.

– Check this box to select all days simultaneously. Uncheck to clear all days.

– If at least one day is set, this button will show up. click this button to set the schedule of the day/s highlighted in green. You will be directed to the “time” page:

  1. Click this arrow to go back to page 4/6 (Focus Type).
  2. This is where you see the day/s that are currently being scheduled.
  3. This is the Time Bar where you set the schedule.
  4. Click on this arrow to toggle between time slots, if there are more than one.
  5. This arrow denotes which time slot is currently selected.
  6. This is a time slot. Create one by clicking and dragging on the Time Bar.
  7. You can fine tune the schedule of the currently selected time slot.
  8. Clicking this will delete the currently selected time slot.
  9. Auto Enable Plan Daily – This option, when enabled, will check if the plan is stopped. It does the check either every 4AM daily or when FocusMe starts up. When it finds the plan is stopped, FocusMe will automatically start it up. Use this as a fail-safe way to keep your plans running.
  10. Back to Days – When you’re done setting the schedule, click on this button to return to the “days” page.
  11. Set End Date – You can set the end date of the plan here. Leaving this blank will let the plan run forever. Click on it to show the calendar:

The date in the red box is the current date. Click on the arrows beside the month to navigate and click on the preferred date. Once an end date is selected, it will be displayed like so:

– days highlighted in blue are those that have their schedules set. You can select them again to change/update the schedule. You can preview their schedules by selecting one of them:

Once the schedule has been set, click on “Next” to go to the next page.

After setting up the schedule, click “Next” to go to the Protection page (6/6). Set it up depending on what you want. Then click “Done” to finish the wizard and save the Focus plan.

The last step is to run your focus plan and test it out – try launching a blocked app/website and see what happens.

Notice that the Focus plan displays the number of launches allowed as well as how long you can view a blocked app/website per use.

Notes:

  • Launch limit is shared among all items in blocklist
  • Accessing a blocked item while the timer is not up will not count against the launch limit.
  • If an item in the Blocklist is closed, minimized, or is out of focus, the timer does NOT stop (unlike with time limit)

When the timer runs out, the launch break timer counts down showing the time left until you can use a blocked website/app again. Trying to open any blocked item during this time will result in an immediate block.

TIP: Accessing a blocked item while the launch timer is still running will not count against the launch limit. This means you can launch multiple items that are included in the Blocklist and it would still count as one launch.

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