"Just block the distracting apps" sounds like one feature until you actually compare how different tools do it. Freedom blocks at the device's network level. Forest blocks nothing and relies on guilt instead. Session sits in between. Deciding what kind of restriction to add to Focus Mode meant actually understanding these aren't different implementations of the same idea, they're different bets on what makes people stay focused.
Hard Blocks: Freedom and Cold Turkey
Freedom and Cold Turkey work at the device or network level: pick a list of apps or sites, start a session, and they're genuinely unreachable until it ends, sometimes even if you restart the device. There's no willpower involved because there's no option to fail. For someone whose actual problem is "I open Twitter without deciding to," this is the most effective category, full stop.
The catch: both require real system permissions (VPN profiles, accessibility access, or similar), cost money past a trial, and are all-or-nothing. You can't half-use a hard block. Once it's on, it's on for everything on the list.
Pick a hard block if your problem is genuinely compulsive app-switching that a reminder or a guilt trip won't stop.
Guilt-Based Soft Locks: Forest
Forest doesn't block anything technically. Leave the app mid-session and nothing stops you, a tree just dies on screen. It's a soft lock built entirely on the discomfort of watching that happen, and for a lot of people that discomfort is genuinely enough. No permissions required, nothing actually restricted.
The catch: it only works if you care about the tree. For anyone who doesn't feel the guilt mechanic, there's zero actual friction between them and leaving the session, because nothing is technically stopping them.
Pick a guilt-based lock if a visible consequence is enough to change your behavior and you don't want to hand over device permissions to get it.
In-App Session Locks: What I'm Building
What I'm adding to Focus Mode is a third category: not a device-level block, not a guilt mechanic, but a lock scoped to the app itself. While a session is running, you won't be able to jump to a different task, edit your board, or dismiss the session screen without an explicit "end session early" confirmation, the same kind of friction Cirillo's original Pomodoro rules intended when a round is void the moment you switch away from it.
It's a real restriction, not a suggestion, but it's scoped to Taskaro itself. It can't stop you from picking up your phone and opening Instagram, because that's not something an in-app lock is capable of doing without the device-level permissions I've deliberately avoided asking for.
Why Not Just Build a Hard Block Too
I went back and forth on this. The honest reason I'm not: Freedom and Cold Turkey already do it well, and doing it right requires OS-level permissions that change what kind of app Taskaro is asking to be trusted as. I made this same call with app blocking when Focus Mode first shipped, and the reasoning hasn't changed. If phone-level blocking is the actual thing you need, pair Focus Mode with one of those, they're not mutually exclusive.
Matching the Restriction to the Actual Problem
- Compulsively opening other apps or sites: a hard block (Freedom, Cold Turkey), nothing in Taskaro solves this today.
- Guilt is enough of a deterrent on its own: Forest's tree mechanic, or similar.
- Drifting between your own tasks and notes mid-session: the in-app soft lock coming to Focus Mode, which is scoped exactly to that problem.
The Honest Takeaway
None of these three replace the other two. A hard block stops you from leaving the device. A guilt lock stops you through discomfort, not force. An in-app lock stops you from drifting within the tool you're already using. I'm building the third one because it's the gap Focus Mode actually has, not because it's the strongest form of restriction that exists.