This is a short post from a developer who built something for himself, and is now trying to figure out if other people want it too.
The Problem
I'm a developer. I spend 8+ hours a day in front of my Mac. And somewhere along the way, I developed a reflex: whenever I hit a hard problem, my fingers automatically type reddit.com or twitter.com.
I don't decide to procrastinate. It just... happens. The hard coding problem triggers discomfort, and my hands seek the dopamine hit before my brain can intervene.
I tracked it for a week. 23 unconscious tab-switches per 4-hour coding session. Each one costs 5-15 minutes to recover the mental context I lost.
What I Tried
- macOS Screen Time: Bypassed it within 30 seconds. Every time.
- Freedom: Too expensive ($40/year subscription) for what it does. Also bypassed it.
- Willpower: lol.
- Browser extensions: Trivially disabled.
What I Built
Monk Mode — a native macOS menu bar app that blocks distracting websites and apps.
What makes it different from the 50 other blockers:
- Context-aware block lists — "Deep Work" blocks everything. "Focus" blocks social but keeps Slack open. "Evening" blocks work apps. One click to switch.
- Menu bar native — always visible, one-click toggle
- $15 one-time — not a subscription that guilts you into keeping it
- No telemetry — your browsing habits stay on your machine
Honest Status
I use it every day. It genuinely changed my work patterns. After about 2 weeks, the unconscious reaching slowed down dramatically.
But I have zero users besides myself. So I'm posting this to find out:
- Is this a problem other developers actually have?
- Would you pay $15 for it?
- What's wrong with my landing page that might be preventing conversions?
Site: mac.monk-mode.lifestyle
Honest feedback welcome. Roast the landing page, the concept, whatever.
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