Block distracting websites in Chrome (without going cold turkey)

The strictest website blocker in the store loses to the same person every time: the one who installed it. Gate your distracting sites behind one question instead, and the gate survives, because there is nothing to rebel against.

Why hard blocks get uninstalled

A wall you built against yourself is a wall you hold the keys to. Blocking research calls the pattern reactance: forbid the site and the site gains pull, until the day you need it for something legitimate and the whole setup gets switched off, permanently. The longer story is in why app blockers don't work; the browser version plays out the same, just faster, because disabling an extension takes four clicks.

Gate sites behind one question

ScrollScout for Chrome replaces the wall with a check-in. Pick your sites, from the preset list or any domain you add. When one is about to open, Scout asks what you came to do. Type the reason, choose the minutes, and you are in on purpose. Draw a blank, close the tab, and call it a walk-away win.

Sessions that end honestly

When the window expires, every open tab on that site returns to a time check showing the intention you named going in. Quitting Chrome does not launder the clock. Sleeping the laptop does not either. There is no free time to find, which is precisely what makes the window you chose feel real when you choose it.

What Scout never sees

The extension makes no network requests at all. No analytics, no account, no server, no sync. Your site list, your intentions and your daily numbers live in local browser storage and die with it. A tool that watches the door has no business reading the mail.