During a plan’s active time, break modes give you temporary access or breathing room. While a break is active, blocking is paused until the break ends.
Continuous Focus / Continuous Lockdown
No breaks are provided. Blocking stays on, or the device stays locked, throughout every active time window.
Pomodoro
Pomodoro splits time into a Focus Phase and a Break Phase, using a fixed rhythm to keep you moving forward.
For example, suppose you set:
- focus for
25minutes - break for
5minutes
If you start the plan at 09:00:
09:00 - 09:25: Focus Phase, so restricted content is blocked09:25 - 09:30: Break Phase, so you can rest freely09:30: the next Focus Phase starts automatically
If the plan uses a Weekly Schedule, the Pomodoro cycle restarts from the beginning whenever a new active schedule window begins.
Usage Limit
Usage Limit gives you a total budget (Allowance).
- Within that budget, you can use restricted content freely.
- After the budget is exhausted, blocking begins.
- When the reset time arrives, the allowance is restored automatically.
Usage Limit applies to every blocked item inside the plan, including:
- URL
- web title
- app
- UWP app
- window title
Even if multiple blocked items match at the same time, usage is counted only once.
In Deep Focus, only time spent on allowed apps and websites counts as focus time. Everything else consumes allowance. You can use the Desktop Timer to see when allowance is being consumed.
In Device Lock, time when the device is not being used counts as focus time, including when the computer is shut down, the screen is locked, or the device is idle. Active computer use consumes allowance.
Detailed Rules
If you set 60 minutes per day, you can use the selected apps or websites for 60 minutes every day. After you exceed the allowance, blocking starts and stays active until the next day.
Custom Cycle means a rolling time window. If you set a custom cycle of 1 hour with 30 minutes of usage allowed inside each 1-hour window, FocusLeaf continuously looks back over the past hour. If usage during that hour exceeds 30 minutes, blocking starts.
Within This Plan Session (Timer Mode only) sets one total budget for the current run of the plan. The allowance resets when the plan ends or restarts.
For example, if you create a Timer Mode plan that lasts 3 days, and you allow 1 hour within the plan session, then each time you start that plan you get 1 hour of total allowance across those three active days.
If the plan uses a Weekly Schedule, allowance tracking and blocking work only during active schedule windows.
For example, if a weekly scheduled plan allows 20 hours per week, those 20 hours apply only inside the plan’s active windows. Usage outside those windows does not count toward the allowance.
You can also use a week or month as the cycle. In Settings, you can change the start time of the day and the first day of the week. These settings determine exactly when allowance resets.
For example, if Sunday is the first day of the week and the start time of the day is 2:00 AM, then weekly allowance resets every Sunday at 2:00 AM.
If you want to change what counts toward usage tracking, go to Settings -> Bypass Prevention -> Check Scope.
Reward
Reward lets you earn break time through focus and build a healthier cycle between work and rest.
For example, suppose you set:
- work for
30minutes - earn
5minutes of break time
Each time you use your device and spend more than 30 continuous minutes without visiting blocked websites or apps, you earn 5 minutes of break time.
Reward mode uses the same counting scope as Usage Limit. It includes URLs, web titles, apps, UWP apps, and window titles, and overlapping matches are not double-counted.
In Deep Focus, only time spent on allowed apps and websites counts as focus time. Using other content consumes allowance instead. You can use the Desktop Timer to see when that is happening.
In Device Lock, time when the device is not being used counts as focus time and accumulates reward time, including when the computer is shut down, the screen is locked, or the device is idle.
Break time keeps accumulating until the reset time arrives. You can reset it daily, weekly, monthly, or when the timer ends.
Like Usage Limit, Reward tracking works only during active schedule windows when the plan uses a Weekly Schedule.
For example, if a weekly scheduled plan is outside its active windows, focus time during those hours does not accumulate Reward, and visiting restricted content during those hours does not spend Reward either.
You can also use a week or month as the reset cycle. In Settings, you can change the start time of the day and the first day of the week to determine exactly when Reward resets.
If you choose On timer end as the reset time (Timer Mode only), Reward resets only when that Timer Mode plan ends or restarts.
If you want to change what counts toward usage tracking, go to Settings -> Bypass Prevention -> Check Scope.
Typing Challenge
Type text to earn break time. You can trigger it from the leaf button on a plan card, or from the break button on the block page.
Available options:
- Random Characters: type randomly generated characters to earn a break. You can set the challenge length up to
1000characters. The longer it is, the harder it is to take a break. - Preset Text: type a phrase that you define in advance to earn a break. Preset text also supports up to
1000characters.
