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Use Focus and the Stay-or-switch gate

Start Focus for 25 minutes, an hour or until you stop, choose how hard the gate pushes back, and use Stay, Allow once and Add to mode.

Updated

The gate only asks during Focus. Outside Focus, the dock just follows your mode.

Start Focus

Click the moon in the dock, choose Start Focus in the menu bar, or press ⌥F. Pick 25 minutes, 1 hour, or until you stop. Time left shows in the dock. Change the shortcut in Settings › General › Shortcuts.

The gate

During Focus, opening an app or site from another mode shows: “Slack belongs to Social. Stay focused, or switch?”

  • Stay (or Return, or Escape) takes you back to the last app that fit.
  • Go to Social switches, after the mode’s wait. Each extra press cuts 3 seconds.
  • Allow once lets it through until the mode changes.
  • Add to Writing adds it to the mode you’re in.

How hard it pushes back

In Settings › General › Focus › Gate:

Setting What it does
Gentle No wait.
Balanced Each mode’s own wait.
Strict At least 30 seconds for modes with a wait, and it asks why before switching.

Related articles

Create and edit modes in HeyDock

Add, rename, reorder and delete modes, pick a symbol and colour, add apps and allowed sites, and set each mode’s wait and daily budget.

Add the HeyDock browser extension

Install HeyDock’s extension in Chrome, Brave, Arc or Edge so sites can fit a mode, blur when they don’t, and show the gate during Focus.

Switch modes with the pill, the menu bar or shortcuts

Change HeyDock’s mode from the dock’s pill, the menu bar, or ⌥1 to ⌥9, and let HeyDock suggest a switch when you open another mode’s app.

Still stuck? Email support@heydock.app with your macOS version and HeyDock version, or see Support.