Most focus tools are made of pixels. Norma is made of steel — cold, weighted, and permanent. That isn’t styling. The object is the mechanism, and the reason the block holds when an app’s wouldn’t.
You can’t pick up an app. You can’t leave a setting in another room. The whole idea behind Norma is to take the thing that controls your focus and make it physical — something with weight, presence, and a fixed place in your space. Here’s what it’s made of, how it works, and why that matters more than any feature list.
270 grams of stainless steel
The disc is machined from solid stainless steel: 70 mm across, 270 grams in the hand — cold, dense, and permanent. That heft is deliberate. A light plastic token is easy to ignore and easy to lose; a weighted steel object reads as something that matters, and it stays where you put it. It’s built to sit out on a desk or a nightstand, not vanish into a drawer.
How a scan switches your phone
Inside the disc is a passive NFC tag — the same technology behind tap-to-pay, with no battery and nothing to charge. When you bring the top of your iPhone close, the phone’s field wakes the tag for a split second and reads it, and the Norma app flips your chosen apps off. Scan again to bring them back. The tag draws the tiny bit of power it needs from the phone itself, so it just sits there, inert, for years — nothing to charge, nothing running, nothing online.
What matters isn’t the chip; it’s where the off switch lives. Because the instruction is on the disc and not in a setting, there’s nothing on the phone to talk yourself past. That’s the whole reason software focus tools quietly fail.
Key takeaways
- 70 mm, 270 g, solid stainless steel — built to sit out, not hide.
- A passive NFC tag inside: no battery, nothing to charge, nothing online.
- One scan blocks your chosen apps; scan again to bring them back.
- The weight and permanence are the point — an object you won’t ignore or lose.
Why an object beats an app
A phone is the most frictionless device you own — every action is one tap away, including undoing your own focus. An object adds the one thing a phone removes: distance. Leave the disc in another room and the block stays in place with zero willpower, because getting back to the feed now means getting up. That small gap is usually enough for the urge to pass. Here’s how the disc compares to software blockers that keep their switch on-screen.
The short version
An app’s off switch is always one tap away, on the same screen you’re trying to leave. A steel disc’s off switch is across the room. That distance is the product.
Focus you can hold.
270 grams of steel that blocks the apps you choose — until you scan again.
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