This week Raycast released a new feature called Raycast Focus. This hyped up the Raycast superfans in my social sphere, so I tried it out and I must say that I’m impressed.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Earlier this week I tried out a handful of browser extensions that would add some friction to social media sites. I have a bit of a bad habit where I open a new tab and instinctively type my favorite social sites: elk.zone, bsky.app, and of course youtube.com. These are mega time-wasters for me. As someone with ADHD these sites are basically dopamine tar pits for my attention.

Videos are an obvious stumbling block, but my biggest pain point is clicking on articles and filling up a couple browsers worth of tabs such that it occupies my brain RAM and I can’t focus on my next task until I clear out my tabs. Even with medication, when the attention ship turns, it can be difficult to steer it back on track. Self-control is great, but the easiest way to avoid distraction is to cut the dopamine off at the source; turn the faucet off at the wall and put child locks on the cabinet. You can still turn it back on, but adding friction to the process makes it a more intentional act of defiance.

Raycast Focus adds the right amount of friction. When you enter a session you can choose what types of apps and websites you want to restrict. If you try to open a tab you’ll get a friendly roadblock. You can still enter the site if necessary but you have to click and hold a button for 3 seconds which is enough time for your brain to reassess if this visit is necessary.

Another positive of Raycast Focus is that it’s an OS level tool. I don’t need different tools to limit apps and websites, it’s all under one roof. I already have muscle memory using Raycast to launch apps so it’s easy to add Raycast Focus to my workflow. And there’s something nice about my distraction launcher also being my distraction governor.

Your mileage may vary, but Raycast Focus is working well for me (almost too well). I feel more productive and sometimes you need to feel productive for your own sake, not your employer’s. Whether it’s your process, your tooling, your calendar, or your own brain working against you, it’s worth finding new strategies to improve your workdays. I’m even using it right now to focus on finishing this blog post and… uh… it worked!