Blocking Websites With DeepCycle & Strict Mode
Block distracting websites during focus sessions with DeepCycle: build a domain block list, set schedules, and lock it with strict mode.
On this page
DeepCycle blocks distracting websites by domain while Deep Focus Mode is running: the tab simply does not open, so there is nothing to resist mid-session. Strict mode adds a password in front of the off switch, converting a decision made while you were focused into one your distracted self cannot casually overturn.
Before you begin
- DeepCycle installed with a working cycle — see the DeepCycle setup guide
- An honest list of the sites that actually end your sessions
Setting up blocking
Build your block list
Add the domains that reliably cost you the hour. Precision beats breadth: because you block by domain, documentation and research stay reachable while the three sites you already know the names of do not.
Set a blocking schedule
Apply the list on the days and hours you want protected instead of always-on. Working hours blocked, evenings open means the same domains are reachable after work without you remembering to re-enable anything.
Run a session with normal blocking first
Start a cycle and let Deep Focus Mode enforce the list. In this mode you can still switch blocking off whenever you like — useful while you are tuning what belongs on the list.
Enable strict mode when the list is right
Turn on strict mode and set its password. From now on, lifting a block mid-session requires typing that password — enough friction to outlast the ninety-second impulse that kills most sessions.
Why the password matters
Ordinary blockers fail at one specific moment: the one where you disable them. The block was never the hard part — keeping the block from being lifted on impulse was. Strict mode is designed around that moment. The impulse to check a feed is short-lived; a password prompt is exactly enough delay for it to pass.
A practical variant used by people who want the lock to genuinely hold: have someone else set the password, or store it somewhere deliberately inconvenient. The point is not secrecy — it is latency.
Blocking versus budgeting
DeepCycle's blocking is binary by design: during a focus session, the site is unreachable. If what you want instead is a daily allowance — the site works, but only for N minutes a day — that is a different tool for a different failure mode, and Degird makes that too: Limiter gives each time-sink site a daily minute budget with a countdown overlay. Many people run both: Limiter's budgets all day, DeepCycle's hard blocks during deep work hours.
Do not block sites you legitimately need for work, even occasionally. A block list that fights your actual job is the list you will disable — and blockers that get disabled stay disabled.
Next steps
DeepCycle
Pomodoro cycles paired with site blocking and gamified tracking, so deep work survives contact with the open internet.
See also
Related documentation
- Getting Started With DeepCycleSet up DeepCycle in Chrome: configure Pomodoro work and break cycles, pick a soundscape, and run your first deep focus session.
- Focus Streaks, Heatmaps & the Desk Plant in DeepCycleHow DeepCycle's gamified analytics work: activity heatmaps, focus streaks, the wellness score, and the four-stage virtual desk plant.