Guide
How to stop watching YouTube when you should be working
YouTube is built to keep you watching: the feed, Shorts and the next video are all chosen to hold you one more minute. Willpower against that is a bad trade. These steps change the setup instead, from free browser settings to a blocker that makes you earn your time.
1. Hide the feed, Shorts and suggestions
Most lost hours start on the home page or in the sidebar, not in the video you meant to watch. With the feed, Shorts and suggestions hidden, you can still search for a lecture or a tutorial, but nothing pulls you to the next one.
2. Turn off autoplay and watch history
In YouTube's settings, switch autoplay off so one video doesn't roll into the next. Pausing watch history also makes the recommendations less sticky over time.
3. Sign out on your work computer
A signed-out YouTube knows less about you, so its recommendations pull less. It's a small speed bump, and small speed bumps work.
4. Make it slower to open
Remove YouTube from your bookmarks, new-tab shortcuts and browser history suggestions. When it takes a few seconds of typing, you get a moment to ask whether you really meant to open it.
5. Decide when you watch, before you start
"After this chapter" or "after lunch" works better than "not today". A rule that gives you some YouTube is easier to keep than one that gives you none.
6. Put your phone in another room
Blocking it on your computer only moves the habit if the app is in your pocket. Distance is the simplest blocker there is.
7. Make YouTube something you earn
This is what Onus does. It seals YouTube until you've worked for it: every 25 minutes on your work sites buys 10 minutes of YouTube. When you spend those minutes, YouTube opens plain, with no feed, Shorts or suggestions, and the seal comes back when the time runs out. On Android, Onus seals the YouTube app the same way.
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