Focus Filtera short story about 9:47 PM
Free Chrome extension to block YouTube Shorts and distractions while you study
It's 1 AM. The lecture is still at 4:12. You've watched a raccoon open a door, a stranger renovate a shed, and a fifteen-second clip you've now seen nine times. That wasn't you. That was the design.
Free. No account. Takes ten seconds.
Chapter 1
Somewhere there's a team whose whole job is to keep you watching. They're good at it. They've studied what your thumb does at midnight, what makes you click, what makes you stay. Your willpower is one person. Their system is thousands of engineers and a billion data points.
It was never a fair fight. So stop fighting it with willpower.
Chapter 2
You came for a lecture. The sidebar came for you. Every thumbnail is engineered to be slightly more interesting than your syllabus.
The video ends, the next one starts. You didn't choose it. You just didn't stop it.
Fifteen seconds, then fifteen more. There is no end screen on a bottomless scroll.
"Just a little music while I study." Forty minutes later you're watching a stranger rank sandwiches.
Every one of them is "just for a minute."
Chapter 3
Focus Filter sits quietly inside YouTube and does one thing: it decides what YouTube is allowed to put in front of you. Not a blocker that kicks you out. A filter that lets the lecture in and keeps the trap out.
Try it. This is a pretend YouTube home page. Flip the switch.
Go on, click a blocked one. It talks back.
Chapter 4
Add the channels and keywords that pull you in. Turn Shorts, Mix and the end screen off in one tap.
Distractions either vanish completely, or turn into a meme with a voice that asks why you're not studying.
Shorts buttons are disabled, autoplay stops, the end screen is empty. YouTube becomes a library again.
What's in the bag
Anything your filters catch turns into a meme with a matching voice clip, pairs you can edit or replace with your own.
The Shorts button disappears from the sidebar. Links are blocked and direct URLs show a go-back page.
Hide Mix, radio and endless playlists before they hook you.
No suggested videos after the lecture. And autoplay stays off too.
Block channels and keywords. Allow the ones you trust.
Set a daily allowance for off-topic videos. When it runs out, blocking starts instantly, with reminders on the way.
Add your own clip or record 3 seconds. Nothing works on you like your own voice saying 'padhai kar'.
No accounts, no servers, no tracking. Your list stays in your browser.
Guides
Chapter 5
A tool that protects your attention shouldn't harvest it. Focus Filter has no account, no analytics, no servers. The titles it reads to decide what's a distraction are checked on your device and never leave it. Only two permissions: storage and alarms.
I developed this extension for personal use. If you like it, you can use it. Contact me if you have any issues using it or installing it. Write to me.
Focus Filter is a free Chrome extension for students. It blocks YouTube Shorts, hides recommendations and end screens, filters distracting videos by channel and keyword, and can turn blocked videos into memes that tell you to study.
Install Focus Filter and keep the Shorts option on. The Shorts button is removed from the sidebar, Shorts shelves are hidden and Shorts links are blocked.
Yes. Hundreds of study keywords and trusted education channels are allowed by default, and Study-only mode blocks everything else.
Yes. Set a daily free-time allowance. Only time on videos your filters would block is counted. When it ends, blocking starts instantly.
Yes, on any Chromium browser, using the same install steps.
It is free. There is no account, no analytics and no server. Your settings stay in your browser.
the last page
Tonight, when you open YouTube for one lecture, leave with one lecture.
Add to Chrome - it's freeWorks on Chrome, Edge, Brave and other Chromium browsers.
The default memes and short sound clips in Focus Guard are not ours. They belong to their respective owners and are used only as brief reaction clips, with each audio clip under 5 seconds. Thank you to the people who made them. If you own one and would like it removed, email jatmcpe.in@gmail.com and it will be taken down.
