FocusDragon has a lot of dials — 10+ lock types, three AI intervention modes, schedules, sessions, BYOK. The most common failure mode for new users is to wire everything up on day one, hit one piece of friction (a false-positive AI catch, a lock they can't undo, a permission they didn't grant), and quit the app forever. This is the opinionated plan that avoids that.
Day 1 — One manual block, No Lock
- Install FocusDragon and complete the Gatekeeper + sign-in flow.
- Create one block. Name it something obvious like "Doomscroll dampener".
- Add five sites you know suck your time — your own honest list, not someone else's. Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, Hacker News is a typical set.
- Pick No Lock. Skip Timer, skip Password, skip everything.
- Hit Start.
Day 1's goal is not heroism. It's to feel what a block feels like — the second of friction, the block page, the small "oh right" moment when you reach for a habit and it isn't there. No Lock means you can toggle off whenever, which is fine. Notice how often you try.
Day 2-3 — A real Timer session
Pick a 90-minute window where you have actual work to do. Edit your block, switch the lock from No Lock to Timer set to 90 minutes, hit Start. You've now committed to the session — the block can't be disabled until time runs out.
Do the work. When the timer ends, the block releases automatically. Notice what shifted: with No Lock, you knew an escape hatch existed; with Timer, you didn't. The two feel completely different even though the blocklist is identical.
Day 4-5 — Your first AI block
- Make sure Screen Recording and Accessibility are granted (see the AI block setup doc).
- Create a new block. Skip the blocked-items list entirely.
- Write a tight, specific task context for something real you need to do today: "writing the introduction of my Q2 review doc in Google Docs". Not "work".
- Leave the mode on Nudge (the default). Pick Timer for the duration of the actual task.
- Hit Start and work as normal.
After the session, look at the session report. Were the AI's catches accurate? Too jumpy? Too loose? This is your calibration data — refine the task-context wording for next time. Once Nudge reliably catches you on real drift without false positives, you can move to Hard for sessions where you genuinely can't afford to drift.
Day 7 — Check Statistics, then tune
Open the Statistics tab (requires Pro). You'll see how many sessions you ran, total focused time, your most-attempted distractors, and AI-flagged drift events. Use the numbers, not your memory, to decide what to change. Common tunings after a first week:
- If you bailed out of No Lock sessions repeatedly, escalate that block to Timer or Delay.
- If you barely ever opened the AI block, that signals your task context was good. Try Nudge mode next.
- If the AI kept catching legitimate work, your task context is too narrow — broaden the wording.
- If you never opened most of the sites on your manual blocklist, trim it. Shorter blocklists feel less like a cage.
The meta-rule
Add one piece of friction at a time, give it three sessions to settle, and only then layer on the next thing. Most users who stick with FocusDragon long-term ramp slowly. The ones who churn in the first week tried to be heroic on day one.