The $15 Mac App That Finally Stopped Me From Doomscrolling During Work

#showdev

I have a confession: I'm a developer who can't stop checking YouTube and X during work hours.

I've tried:

Cold Turkey (too aggressive, blocked stuff I needed)
Screen Time (too easy to bypass)
"Just having discipline" (lol)

None of it stuck. So I built my own thing.

Monk Mode for Mac

It's a native macOS app that does a few things really well:

1. Feed-level blocking
This is the killer feature for me. It doesn't block youtube.com entirely — it blocks the Home feed and Shorts. So I can still watch a specific tutorial video if I need to, but I can't fall into the recommendation hole.

Same for X — it blocks the For You feed but lets me access specific profiles or search.

2. Focus sessions with teeth
You set a timer. During that time, your blocked sites stay blocked. You can't just toggle it off on a whim. The app shows you a blocking page that says "Work on success, not youtube.com" which is honestly annoying enough to snap me out of autopilot.

3. Daily limits
Even outside focus sessions, I can set a daily cap: "30 minutes of YouTube per day." After that, it's locked.

4. Menu bar tasks
Quick task capture from the notch area. Sounds small, but it keeps me from opening a note app and then getting distracted by something else.

Does it actually work?

For me, yes. The difference between Monk Mode and other blockers is that it targets feeds specifically, not entire domains. That distinction matters because feeds are designed to trap your attention. Specific URLs are usually intentional.