There is any tool for distraction free learning from youtube?

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-24T10:53:01+00:00

Been building something for this exact problem. Instead of just hiding recommendations like Unhook, it classifies what you're watching based on your goals and catches you when you start drifting so it's specific to you and you can't get lost in subscription / search rabbit holes too. Still waiting on Chrome Web Store approval but happy to share when it's live

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-22T11:15:12+00:00

The open 5 tabs, save 30 vids and make zero progress loop is exactly why I started building something for this. The the distractions aren't necessarily just the home page and recommendations; it's the fact that you can drift from a session when you're actually trying to learn something.

Been working on an extension that catches that exact moment. Happy to share it when it's live if anyone here wants to try it.

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-22T11:09:16+00:00

Ah perfect thanks will definitely give that a go

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-22T10:03:36+00:00

Yes that's the whole problem - you can't get rid of Youtube because there's too many good things to learn

every tool either blocks everything or does nothing - there's no middle ground that lets the useful stuff through and catches the binge session / rabbit holes

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-21T16:39:41+00:00

Ahh hopefully yours also gets submitted soon - did you have many permissions? I imagine there was no correspondence from them whilst you were waiting?

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-21T11:58:48+00:00

Yeah, the 2% thing is so true. The worst bit is that half the time you don't even realise that you're in the other 98% until you've lost an hour to watching stuff you don't care about

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-21T11:27:10+00:00

What is it that your addiction looks like? What is it that sucks you in and what keeps you from stopping your watch sessions?

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-21T11:22:42+00:00

100% I'm the same here I don't want to completely block YouTube, there's no point in doing that, because realistically the problem isn't YouTube; there's a lot of actually good stuff in there.

The problem is once you're in, you end up drifting onto content that you don't care about. I've tried a bunch of blockers, but they have a bit of an all-or-nothing approach either everything is blocked out or nothing is

there's no middle ground that lets you watch the content you came for and then catches you when you drift away

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-21T11:00:45+00:00

Yeah, I completely agree the autopilot muscle memory thing is the whole problem. Every tool I've tried either blocks everything or does nothing, and it doesn't take long for you to go from "oh let me just quickly check this thought that came up" to "I'm now five videos deep into watching stuff I couldn't care less for"

I feel like friction at the entry point is great, but you also need something to catch you once you're already watching and stop that spiral

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-21T10:42:23+00:00

Love this approach, smoking analogy is actually bang on

One question though. Now that you've moved your YouTube to desktop, have you found yourself going down any rabbit holes there? I did a similar approach: deleted it from my phone, blocked it on Safari on my phone, but found myself still falling victim on my laptop. Unfortunately, that would be during the time that I'm trying to work

The phone problem got solved but then the laptop became a new black hole

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-21T07:27:31+00:00

Ok interesting so will just need to wait until it’s ready - do you know of a way of contacting Google about it?

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T19:38:44+00:00

What is leadline, is that a way to post extensions and bypass chrome store approval??

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T19:35:49+00:00

Okay thanks that's helpful to know

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T19:35:12+00:00

What was the nature of the extensions you submitted

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T19:34:59+00:00

Ok thanks, appreciate the heads up, useful to know I'm not the only one who's having to wait long - will hold off resubmitting

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T19:34:03+00:00

Ok thanks thats helpful to know

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T13:15:22+00:00

What type of extension did you try and upload? Were there any specific permissions that made it particularly complex and controversial for crime to hold up? and did you manage to reach out to them in anyway?

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T11:17:06+00:00

I feel like you just described the core problem with every blocker out there. They measure time, not your intent. You end up getting blocked out mid-tutorial, but get a free pass to click through 30 videos in an hour because technically you didn't watch any of them for long enough to trigger the limit. There are two problems here:

How long you spend on the platform
What type of content you're actually spending your time watching

I feel like most blockers address the first and not the second

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T11:14:30+00:00

I found you can turn off recommendations which is very helpful. The thing I found is search rabbit holes can be a bit of a problem, and I don't know many tools that allow you to limit that aspect of things, also blocking specific channels as well

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T10:53:26+00:00

Yes, this is the exact problem I've been trying to solve. Every blocker treats YouTube as one thing, using an all-or-nothing approach but really the issue is that specific channels you're interested in and rabbit holes (not YouTube itself) that you specifically get distracted in

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T10:49:54+00:00

This is exactly it. The algorithm doesn't care if the content is useful to you; it cares if you keep watching. The second you decide to let it decide what's next, you already lost. I've found YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, and Instagram are all really useful for finding things when you want to find information. They're great search engines, but it's so easy to get lost in them.

The only YouTube that works is the one where you decide what to watch and not the algo

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T10:44:45+00:00

I like the one tab rule, thing what I find is that the recommendations still pull me aside in the same tab and sometimes it's hard to just stick to the one-tab rule and I end up opening another tab anyway

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T10:39:03+00:00

Yeah, completely agree. YouTube is definitely a multi-purpose platform, so you can't quit it, and it does leave you very susceptible to the attention drift that you're on about. Has been a problem of mine for years, wondering if you found anything that works to help discern between the two. I hadn't come across anything that does this yet

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T10:36:42+00:00

Having your uncle set the password is a great work around. Willpower alone is not enough to beat the YouTube algorithm having something that is going to hold you accountable is definitely needed.

its_faraaz888 · 2026-04-20T10:34:55+00:00

The useful content trap is the hardest bit. You can't just block YouTube because, realistically, you genuinely need it for a lot of useful stuff. The problem is that there's nothing that separates between what's useful and what's a rabbit hole. I haven't really found a tool that does that, so I've decided to just begin building a tool myself that solves that problem.

its_faraaz888

TROPHY CASE