OneTab
Status: KEEPCollapses 60 shame tabs into one list, instantly; RAM and dignity restored.
The catch: The list becomes its own graveyard; schedule a monthly purge.
Added 2026-08 · Checked 2026-08
Browser extensions and web tools
Free changes to the browser you already live in.
Which browser extensions help with ADHD focus?
Install the one extension that plugs your biggest leak: OneTab if tabs pile up, News Feed Eradicator if social feeds steal your breaks, Unhook if YouTube turns one video into an evening, and Dark Reader if bright screens bother you. Extensions are speed bumps, not walls, so install them in the browser profile you work in and add one at a time.
Some links here earn us a commission, including Amazon links. Commissions never decide what gets a stamp. How the shelf works → The money detail.
Tabs
2 cardsMomentum
Status: WORTH A LOOKNew tab shows one focus for the day instead of a feed; ambient redirection.
The catch: Decorative if you never open new tabs mindlessly; you do, though.
Added 2026-08 · Checked 2026-08
Feeds and focus
4 cardsNews Feed Eradicator
Status: KEEPReplaces the infinite feed with a quote; the site still works, the trap doesn't.
The catch: Covers major feeds only; the phone app remains the phone app.
Added 2026-08 · Checked 2026-08
Unhook for YouTube
Status: KEEPStrips YouTube recommendations, shorts, and autoplay; search still works, the spiral doesn't.
The catch: You will feel the pull for a week; that is the extension working.
Added 2026-08 · Checked 2026-08
StayFocusd
Status: WORTH A LOOKDaily time budgets per site with a nuclear option for deadline days.
Band: free
Tags: blockers, focus
Confidence: Tested briefly
The catch: Browser-level only; a motivated you bypasses it. Pattern-interrupt, not a wall.
App-level blockers are software; carded here one line only.
Added 2026-08 · Checked 2026-08
Marinara: Pomodoro Assistant
Status: WORTH A LOOKA no-nonsense Pomodoro timer living in the toolbar.
Band: free
Tags: pomodoro, focus
Confidence: Community-sourced (n=7)
The catch: Toolbar-only; it disappears the moment the browser does.
Added 2026-08 · Checked 2026-08
Reading and sensory
2 cardsDark Reader
Status: KEEPDark mode everywhere; sensory relief for light-sensitive late sessions.
The catch: Occasionally mangles a site; the per-site toggle is one click.
Added 2026-08 · Checked 2026-08
Helperbird
Status: WORTH A LOOKReading and accessibility toolkit in one extension: fonts, spacing, overlays, TTS.
The catch: Feature sprawl; enable three things, ignore the rest.
Added 2026-08 · Checked 2026-08
How this shelf is organized
The extensions shelf holds free and low-cost browser extensions sorted by the leak they plug: tabs, feeds and focus, reading and sensory comfort, and blockers and timers. Each card carries a stamp, a one-line reason, a price band (most are free) and a confidence line. Extension cards are re-checked quarterly against current browser versions; an extension that stops working or leaves its store flips to RETURNED with the reason published, under the desk rules. The ranked shortlist is best focus extensions.
Install safely
Extensions can read and change the pages you visit. Install them only from your browser's official store or from a link on the developer's own site, check the publisher, and read the permissions. A dark mode tool needs to change pages; a tab manager asking for your email is a warning sign. Remove extensions you no longer use, because ownership and behavior can change over time.
One leak at a time
Installing five extensions in one afternoon makes it impossible to tell what helped and easy to switch them all off on a bad day. Pick the leak that costs you most, install one extension for it, and live with it for a week. Then decide whether to add another. Our guide to turning off the feed in your browser walks through the most common setup step by step.
Reading and sensory comfort
Two cards here are about comfort rather than blocking. Dark Reader turns every site dark, which helps light-sensitive late sessions. Helperbird bundles reading tools such as fonts, spacing, overlays and text-to-speech in one extension; its catch is feature sprawl, so switch on three things and ignore the rest. For listening to articles instead of reading them, the reading shelf covers text-to-speech apps and read-later tools.
What extensions cannot do
They work only in the browser and profile where they are installed, and a determined you can disable them in seconds. They do nothing for phone apps. Treat them as friction, which helps, and pair them with something outside the browser for hard days: a desk timer, a body doubling session, or a separate work profile that keeps the feeds out by default.
How these cards got their stamps
OneTab, Dark Reader, News Feed Eradicator and Unhook are stamped KEEP: owned and used, still installed after months. Momentum, Helperbird, StayFocusd and Marinara are WORTH A LOOK: useful in the right situation, with a catch each card names. StayFocusd's catch is the general one for browser blockers: a motivated you can bypass it, so it works as a pattern interrupt rather than a wall. Every card shows when it was last checked against current browsers.
Questions to ask before installing
Which single leak am I fixing? Is this the official store listing, from the publisher I expect? What permissions does it ask for, and do they match its job? When was it last updated? Will I install it in the profile I actually work in? What will I do on the day I want to switch it off? Answering these in two minutes avoids most of the problems people have with focus extensions, from privacy worries to the five-extension pile-up.
Shortlists and guides from this shelf
The focus extensions shortlist ranks the cards and covers safe installation, work profiles and monthly maintenance. The guide to turning off the feed in your browser walks through setup. For the tab-and-article overload that extensions only partly fix, our note on where the read-later pile goes now that Pocket is gone covers the reading side, and the YouTube shortlist explains the settings that pair with Unhook.
A starter set for one browser
If you install nothing else, start with two: OneTab, to turn a crowd of tabs into one list you can come back to, and News Feed Eradicator or Unhook, to replace the feed you lose most time to with a blank page. Use them for a week. Add a blocker such as StayFocusd only if you still find yourself on the same site several times an hour, and a Pomodoro timer such as Marinara only if you want the browser itself to time your work. Each extra extension is one more thing that can break or ask for permissions, so stop at the smallest set that works.
Keep extensions working for you
Review your extensions every few months. Remove any you have not noticed in a week, because an extension you never see is either doing nothing or reading pages for no reason. Check that each one is still updated in the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons, and read the permissions again after an update that asks for more. If a focus extension starts showing ads or asks for access to all sites when it did not before, replace it.
Work and home browsers
A simple trick that helps many people is to use a separate browser profile for work, with its own extensions and no social logins. Blockers stay on in the work profile and off at home. Switching profiles becomes a small ritual that marks the start of work, and you avoid locking yourself out of something you need in the evening.
Questions
- Q. Do blockers actually work?
- A. They work as pattern interrupts, not walls. A motivated you disables any of them in twenty seconds. The value is the pause, which is often enough.
- Q. How often are these re-checked?
- A. Quarterly, against current browser versions. A dead extension listing flips the card to RETURNED with the reason published.
- Q. Are browser extensions safe?
- A. Mostly, if you install from the official store, check the publisher and permissions, and remove ones you no longer use. Be wary of extensions that ask for more access than their job needs.
- Q. How often are extension cards checked?
- A. Quarterly, against current browser versions. An extension that stops working or leaves its store is stamped RETURNED with the reason.
- Q. Do focus extensions work on phones?
- A. Most of the extensions on this shelf are built for desktop browsers, and phone browsers support far fewer. On a phone, the built-in focus modes and app limits do more; keep the extensions for the computer where most deep work happens.
- Q. Are browser extensions safe?
- A. Most popular ones are, but every extension can see what its permissions allow. Install from the official store, check the publisher and reviews, avoid extensions that ask to read all sites without need, and remove ones you no longer use.
Every card on this shelf follows the same rules. How cards get in →
Shelves: Gear and gadgets, Home and environment, Planners and paper, Browser extensions, Newsletters and creators, Podcasts and YouTube, Communities and body doubling, Services and coaching, Reading and audiobooks