There’s absolutely no doubt that the Internet is an essential tool, and it’s almost impossible to function in modern society without using it. It gives you access to anyone, anything, anywhere, anytime. But if you have ADHD like me, all of this can be very overwhelming and can keep you away from things that truly matter or require your attention.

For as long as I can remember, I have been trying to make sense of this vast world of information through various productivity tools, methods, and hacks. Since my diagnosis almost two years ago, I have only doubled down on optimizing my digital space. And the Web was where I had to set up the biggest boundaries.

How I Use the Browser

I believe that the way I use a Web browser is quite different from most people, or at least I get this impression after observing my ex-colleagues, friends, and other creators I read, watch, and listen to.

I treat my browser the same way I treat my email inbox or desktop — I only keep tabs open when I’m actively working on something, and I close them as soon as I’m done with them. Hence, there’s not a single tab open when I launch my browser — I always start with a clean slate. Similarly, I don’t use any kind of tab grouping solution unless I’m doing something like planning a trip, when that feature actually comes in handy.

My bookmarks list is very short and only includes a handful of links that otherwise would require a lot of digging to get to. I open most websites by simply typing in their name into the address bar.

Stripping Safari Down to Its Essentials

Since my complete switch to the Apple ecosystem 10 years ago, I have been a Safari user for most of my personal browsing¹. It’s fast, battery-efficient, prioritizes privacy, and seamlessly integrates with Apple’s devices and services. But I also like it for its simple, clutter-free interface that can be stripped down to the absolute minimum while still maintaining full functionality.

My Start Page has none of its features enabled, and I keep it synced across my Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Occasionally, I check my Privacy Report when I get curious, but other than that, I don’t need immediate access to my Favorites, Reading List, iCloud Tabs, etc.

Similarly, there are no extensions or unnecessary buttons in my Toolbar. Once I have set up a new extension, I remove its icon from the Toolbar. Writing this, I now realize that I probably don’t need the Back/Forward arrows nor the New Tab or Tab Overview, since I rely on keyboard shortcuts for accessing all of them.

Reader, Viewer, and Distraction Control in Safari

With the Start Page and Toolbar reduced to the minimum, there are two more built-in features in Safari that help me focus. The Reader and its latest companion Viewer (both activated with Cmd-Shift-R) put the website’s main content, like an article or a video, front and center. If you have Apple Intelligence enabled, Reader also lets you summarize the content of a page.

The other feature that Apple added with iOS 18 is Distraction Control, which lets you Thanos-snap any element on a website with one of the coolest animations that I have seen in a piece of software since transitions in Keynote (seriously, kudos to whoever created it).

Third-Party Safari Extensions For Reducing Distractions

The distraction-reducing toolbox that Apple ships with Safari is already pretty good, but there are a few extensions I use across all of my devices that let me take it a few notches further.

1Blocker

I don’t need to go on about how annoying pop-ups on websites can be. Email newsletter signups, cookie policies, privacy settings, app installation banners — sometimes appearing on the screen all at the same time. And of course, ads. Ad blockers are an absolute must these days, and not only for reducing distractions, but also making sure that all of these elements don’t impact your device’s performance.

Safari supports a type of extensions called Content Blockers, which can go much further than just blocking ads. One of those extensions is 1Blocker, which I have been using for years now. It hides away ads and all of the distracting elements I have listed above, and it even blocks web trackers. It can be quite aggressive at its job, so you may find yourself reloading websites without Content Blockers when they don’t work properly.

SocialFocus, UnTrap, and Vinegar

My biggest focus kryptonite is YouTube. If my self-control is particularly low on a given day, I can find myself watching random videos for hours on end. I have tried to fight it in many ways, but sooner or later I’d give up and go back to this nasty habit of mine. Luckily, one of the videos that the algorithm has brought to my attention was this one from Reysu, where he introduced me to two Safari extensions I have never heard of before.

SocialFocus and UnTrap, both made by the same developer, disable distracting elements or entire sections of social media websites and YouTube. UnTrap is specifically designed for YouTube, giving you control over pretty much everything you can imagine, whereas SocialFocus also supports other social media websites. Both extensions work on macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. There are also versions for Chrome and Firefox.

Here are a few examples of tweaks that I have made to social media websites and YouTube using SocialFocus and UnTrap:

• On Facebook, hiding the news feed, stories, and all other elements I don’t want to see;
• On Instagram, hiding sponsored and suggested posts, the Explore and Reels pages, and suggested accounts;
• On LinkedIn, hiding the feed, suggested users, Premium ads, and the floating messages bar;
• On Reddit, hiding related posts, “Trending Today”, “Popular Communities”, “Get App” notifications, and other elements in the left sidebar;
• In UnTrap for YouTube, hiding all shorts, the “Explore” section, video comments, and set “Watch Later” as my Home Page.

UnTrap also has a feature that lets you replace YouTube’s own video player with a system-native HTML5 viewer, which supports Picture-In-Picture out of the box. In my experience, it’s quite buggy, so I have stacked with another extension I have been using for a while that does the same thing called Vinegar. Its developer, And a Dinosaur (awesome name), has created other utilities helping reduce distractions, like Spool for Threads and Lucky for Google.

Opal

Opal quickly became one of the most important tools in my ADHD toolset. I already went deeper into what Opal is, what it does, and how I use it in this article, so I won’t be repeating myself here. What’s great about it in the context of web browsing, though, is that it doesn’t require any extensions. Once you set up your block list in the app, all the websites will be blocked as long as you have an active focus session.

Conclusion

The Internet is only getting more distracting. Fortunately, there are a lot of great developers out there building simple but powerful tools to help us regain control over it. I would love to hear from you about how you fight distractions when browsing the Web. If you have any tips or recommendations for similar extensions, feel free to share them with me via Threads, Bluesky, or Mastodon.