Distraction Cost Calculator
Estimate how many hours and dollars you lose to YouTube, Reddit, social feeds, and other distraction sites each year.
Enter how many minutes you typically lose on each site during a workday. We annualize at 5 workdays/week.
Your distraction cost
Per workday
160 min
Per week
13 hrs
Per year
693 hrs
At ~$40/hour, that is roughly $27,733/year in lost focus time — before counting the extra recovery time after each interruption.
Highest-cost sites
- YouTube: 45 min/day
- Reddit: 25 min/day
- X / Twitter: 20 min/day
- TikTok / Shorts: 20 min/day
- Other browsing: 20 min/day
Tip: UC Irvine research found it can take ~23 minutes to regain deep focus after a single interruption — so the real cost is usually higher than raw minutes spent.
Recover those hours with system-level blocking
LockIn MCP blocks your highest-cost sites across every browser on Mac, Linux, and Windows — and your AI assistant can start a focus session for you.