Why I Stopped Blocking Entire Websites and Started Blocking Feeds Instead

Every developer I know has tried a website blocker at some point. Block Twitter, block YouTube, block Reddit. Problem solved, right?

Wrong. Here is why that approach keeps failing and what actually works instead.

The Problem with Blocking Entire Sites

When you block twitter.com completely, you lose:

• DMs from collaborators
• Notifications about your own posts
• Search (genuinely useful for debugging)
• The ability to post updates about your work

So what happens? You unblock it "just for a minute" to check DMs. Then the feed is right there. Twenty minutes later you are deep in a thread about something completely irrelevant.

The issue was never the platform. It was the algorithmic feed. That is the part designed to keep you scrolling.

Feed-Level Blocking Changes Everything

Instead of blocking the whole site, what if you could:

• Keep DMs working
• Keep search working
• Keep the ability to post
• But completely remove the feed

No "For You" tab. No infinite scroll. No recommendations. Just the functional parts of the platform.

This is what feed-level blocking does. You keep the utility of every platform but remove the dopamine trap.

My Setup

I use a macOS tool called Monk Mode that does exactly this. It costs $15 (lifetime, not subscription) and blocks feeds at the content level rather than the domain level.

Here is what changed after two weeks:

Before (full site blocking):

• Blocked Twitter 3x per day
• Unblocked it within 30 minutes every time
• Net focus time gained: basically zero

After (feed-level blocking):

• Twitter search and DMs still work
• Zero doomscrolling because there is no feed to scroll
• Actually maintained the block for the full two weeks
• Estimated 2+ hours per day recovered

Why It Works

Traditional blockers fail because they are too aggressive. They block things you actually need, which creates pressure to disable them. And disabling is always one click away.

Feed-level blocking is sustainable because there is no reason to disable it. Everything useful still works. The only thing missing is the part that wastes your time.

The Numbers

According to my screen time data over the past 14 days:

• Twitter usage dropped from 47 min/day to 8 min/day
• YouTube dropped from 35 min/day to 12 min/day (only intentional videos, no recommended rabbit holes)
• Total recovered time: roughly 62 minutes per day

That is over 7 hours per week of deep work time I was losing to feeds.

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If you are a developer who has tried and failed with traditional website blockers, feed-level blocking might be worth looking at. Monk Mode is macOS only and costs $15 one time.

TL;DR: Stop blocking entire websites. Block the feeds instead. You keep the useful parts and remove the addictive parts. It actually sticks because there is no reason to disable it.