Focus Mode's timer doesn't stop me from doing anything. It counts down whether I'm actually working or I've already switched to a different task four minutes in. I noticed this the same week I was proud of shipping the custom duration option: a longer timer doesn't matter if there's nothing keeping you inside the session in the first place.
That's the gap I'm closing now, and it took longer to commit to than I expected.
What a Countdown Alone Doesn't Do
A timer measures time. It doesn't enforce attention. You can start a Focus Mode session, get a notification, open a different task on your board to "just quickly check something," and the countdown keeps running the entire time, oblivious. The session completes, the stats say you focused for 25 minutes, and you both know that isn't quite what happened.
I've written before about why focus timers quietly fail, and an unenforced countdown is one of the reasons that didn't make that list yet: the timer did its job, but it never actually asked anything of you beyond starting it.
What Freedom and Session Get Right
Apps built specifically around restriction, Freedom, Cold Turkey, Session, block distracting apps or sites at the device level once a session starts. That's a real mechanism, not a suggestion, and it's genuinely more effective than any amount of intention-setting for someone whose actual failure mode is compulsively opening something else.
What's Actually Going Into Focus Mode
Not device-level blocking. What I'm building is scoped to the app itself: while a session is running, switching to a different task or leaving the session screen requires an explicit "end this session early" confirmation, instead of silently letting you drift away and back. It's a small mechanical change, but it turns "I got distracted for a bit" into a decision you have to actually make, not something that happens by accident.
I'm comparing this directly against harder forms of blocking, and against Forest's guilt-based approach, in a separate post on restriction styles, because they solve genuinely different problems and I don't want to pretend Taskaro's version is the strongest one on the market.
Why This Took So Long to Add
When Focus Mode first shipped, I explicitly decided against app and device blocking because I didn't want to ask for the permissions it requires, and I didn't want Taskaro's pitch to become "we lock your phone." That reasoning hasn't changed. What changed is realizing there's a version of restriction that doesn't need any of those permissions at all, because it only has to hold you inside the app you're already using.
What I'm Not Doing
To be direct: this won't stop you from picking up your phone and opening Instagram. It can't, without the exact permissions I turned down the first time. If your actual problem is leaving the device entirely, not drifting inside Taskaro, pair Focus Mode with something like Freedom. I'd rather say that plainly than let an in-app lock imply it does more than it does.
Where This Stands
This is still being built, not shipped. I'm writing about the reasoning now because the decision (in-app soft lock, not device blocking) is the part that actually matters, and I'd rather explain it honestly while it's in progress than announce it as finished before it is.