How to Use the Time Limiter
A popular feature in FocusMe is the time limiter that lets you limit to how long you can access apps and/or websites before they are blocked. This is handy for situations where you want to control usage and/or do not want to block something completely.
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 Websites page (2/6), if you want to block websites, click on the “Add” 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 Done to add the item/s on the list. Then hit “Next”.
Do the same thing for the Applications tab (if you wish to time limit any applications) then click “Next”.
On the Focus type page (4/6), Choose “Time Limit”, then “Next”
Set a time limit on how long the apps/websites can be used on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Note: The time limit is shared among all the included apps and websites in the Blocklist.
Note: The time limit can be used in parts – if no blocked item is accessed, the timer stops and will resume again when FocusMe detects usage of these item/s.
The example above shows a limit of 2 hours per day. That means you have a total of 2 hours to access all websites/apps included in the Blocklist before they are blocked. On the next day. the time limit resets, giving you another 2 hours.
Once you’re done setting the time limit, click “Next” to go to the Scheduling page (5/6).
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:
- Click this arrow to go back to page 4/6 (Focus Type).
- This is where you see the day/s that are currently being scheduled.
- This is the Time Bar where you set the schedule.
- Click on this arrow to toggle between time slots, if there are more than one.
- This arrow denotes which time slot is currently selected.
- This is a time slot. Create one by clicking and dragging on the Time Bar.
- You can fine tune the schedule of the currently selected time slot.
- Clicking this will delete the currently selected time slot.
- 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.
- Back to Days – When you’re done setting the schedule, click on this button to return to the “days” page.
- 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.
The Protection page (6/6) is where you setup the plan’s protection. Set it up depending on how you want to protect your plan (see guide). 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 timer counts down whenever you’re accessing any apps/websites included in the Blocklist. The timer stops whenever none of these items are active (minimized, in the background, or closed). The timer then resumes counting down when FocusMe detects usage of any blocked websites/apps. When the timer runs out, the items in the Blocklist will be blocked right away.