Guide

How to block YouTube while working.

One video turns into six, and an hour is gone. The fix is not willpower, it is making YouTube unavailable during the exact window you need to work. Here is how to do that for free, with blocking that turns on by itself when your focus round starts.

Why is YouTube so hard to resist?

YouTube is built to keep you watching. Autoplay queues the next video before you decide, the home feed learns exactly what pulls you in, and a quick "study music" search drops you into a feed of thumbnails. Telling yourself "just one" rarely works, because the next video starts on its own. The reliable move is to take the choice off the table while you work, then give it back when you are done.

How do you block YouTube automatically?

The trick is to tie the block to your work session instead of leaving it on all day. All-day blocks get in the way when you genuinely need a video for a task. A timer-gated block is on only while you focus, so it stays out of your way the rest of the time. GoFlow does this with a free timer and a free Focus Guard extension that read from one shared blocklist.

Step by step

1. Open GoFlow. Go to goflow.space/app in your browser. There is no sign-up.
2. Get the free Focus Guard extension. In GoFlow, open Settings and click Download Focus Guard. Extract the downloaded file to get a folder.
3. Load it in your browser. In Chrome, Edge, or Brave, open the extensions page, turn on Developer mode, click Load unpacked, and pick the extracted folder. It takes about a minute and needs no store account.
4. Add YouTube to your blocklist. Back in GoFlow, add youtube.com. You can add other time sinks while you are there.
5. Start a round. The instant a work round begins, YouTube is blocked across every tab. When the round ends or you take a break, it opens back up.

Which YouTube pages should you block?

For most people, blocking the whole site is the cleanest choice, because the home feed and search are where the pull starts. If you only lose time to the home feed, you can block that page and still reach direct video links you need for work. Start strict, then loosen only if it gets in your way.

A note on how blocking works

A normal web page cannot block other sites for security reasons, which is why blocking lives in a small browser extension. GoFlow's Focus Guard is free, keeps your list on your device, and never tracks your browsing. The app and the extension share one list, so you only manage it in one place.

Common questions

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