Blog
Things worth knowing about the phone in your hand.
Fifty pieces, one a day. Written by people who tried each of these on their own phone first. No listicles, no cures, and no pretending the settings are enough on their own.
Screen Time, and where it breaks
Someone who set a limit last month and is looking at the app right now. Problem-aware, tool-aware, currently losing.
Start with the guide: Making Screen Time actually hold →-
Screen Time, and where it breaks12 minA Screen Time setup that survives you: twelve minutes, done once
Every setting worth turning on, in order, with the two that undo the rest flagged.
9 Oct · how to set up screen time properly iphone -
Screen Time, and where it breaks11 minHow to block a website on an iPhone, and why the app limit did not already do it
The Websites field inside App Limits that almost nobody scrolls far enough to find.
4 Oct · how to block websites on iphone -
Screen Time, and where it breaks11 minIt says 4h 12m. Here is how to find out where it actually went.
Read the weekly report properly, including the two numbers that matter more than total hours.
28 Sep · how to see detailed screen time breakdown iphone -
Screen Time, and where it breaks13 minWhere your Screen Time passcode really lives, and why you will type it anyway
Four places to put a passcode you set on yourself, ranked by how long each one survives.
22 Sep · screen time passcode for yourself -
Screen Time, and where it breaks12 minDowntime, App Limits, or Always Allowed: which of the three you actually want
Three tools that look interchangeable and are not. Pick by what your bad hour looks like.
16 Sep · downtime vs app limits -
Screen Time, and where it breaks10 minYou are both the parent and the child, and Screen Time only knows about one of you
Why every gap in Apple's tool follows from one design assumption, and what to do given that it is not changing.
11 Sep · screen time for adults not kids -
Screen Time, and where it breaks13 minThe 11pm delete-and-reinstall loop, and the one setting that ends it
Why this loophole beats almost everyone: it does not feel like cheating, it feels like tidying up.
6 Sep · delete app to bypass screen time -
Screen Time, and where it breaks11 minIgnore Limit is the whole problem. Here is how to take the button away.
Ninety seconds, two settings, and the grey screen stops offering you a way out.
1 Sep · how to remove ignore limit screen time -
Screen Time, and where it breaks12 minScreen Time app limits not working? Nine causes, in the order to check them
Ordered by how often it is actually the cause, each with a twenty second check.
27 Aug · screen time app limits not working -
Screen Time, and where it breaks10 minEvery way an iPhone hands back an app you blocked
Nine doors, what each costs to shut, and the two that cannot be shut at all.
26 Aug · ways to bypass app limits iphone
The night
The Midnight Scroller. Reading this in bed, in the dark, at the exact hour the article is about.
Start with the guide: The phone after ten →-
The night15 minYou said you would read a book. Here is why the phone wins at eleven.
A fair fight between a book and a feed, scored honestly. The book loses on merit.
5 Oct · why cant i read instead of scrolling -
The night11 minWhat forty minutes a night costs you by March
Your own number, worked out, in hours and then in things you would have done with them.
29 Sep · screen time sleep debt -
The night12 minNine minutes: the real gap between one more video and being asleep
The arithmetic on one more video, done properly, with the sources.
23 Sep · doomscrolling before bed effects -
The night13 minThe Early Reacher, the Desk Drifter, the Sofa Sinker, the Midnight Scroller
Four honest self-diagnoses and the one rule that fits each. Find yourself in about ninety seconds.
17 Sep · types of phone addiction -
The night12 minHow to make your phone boring after ten (six settings, none of them an app)
Six things built into iOS, ranked by how much they actually change the hour.
12 Sep · how to make phone boring at night -
The night11 minCharging your phone in another room does not work
Eleven nights of trying the advice everyone gives. What broke it, on night four.
7 Sep · charging phone outside bedroom doesn't work -
The night12 minRevenge bedtime procrastination, minus the lecture: what to do at 10:30
Not why it happens. What to physically do in the twenty minutes before it happens.
2 Sep · how to stop revenge bedtime procrastination -
The night12 minYou are not still awake. You are awake again.
The difference between the two, and why only one of them can be fixed with a rule.
28 Aug · why do i scroll on my phone at night
The desk
The Desk Drifter. Has a document open behind this tab. Has had it open since ten.
Start with the guide: Getting the work done →-
The desk13 minSix things that beat a timer, including two that are slightly embarrassing
Body doubling, the shut door, the paper list, and three more, each with the failure mode named.
7 Oct · alternatives to pomodoro timer -
The desk13 minIf you cannot say what you opened it for, you did not open it
A one-sentence test for the reach, and what to do in the four seconds it buys you.
1 Oct · why do i pick up my phone for no reason -
The desk13 minTwenty-three minutes is real, and it is worse than the headline
What the study actually measured, what it did not, and the honest number for your day.
25 Sep · how long to refocus after distraction -
The desk13 minHow long a focus block should be (it is not twenty-five minutes for most people)
Pick your length from the work you are doing, not from a tomato-shaped kitchen timer.
19 Sep · how long should a focus session be -
The desk11 minBlocking distractions when your job lives in Slack
How to build an always-allowed list that is short enough to mean something.
9 Sep · how to focus when your job is on slack -
The desk10 minThe Pomodoro technique does not fail. Your phone does.
Where in the twenty-five minutes it actually breaks, and the one change that fixes it.
4 Sep · why doesnt pomodoro work for me -
The desk12 minYou never stopped working. You just stopped doing the work.
The difference between a break and a drift, and the tell that separates them.
29 Aug · why do i get distracted at my desk -
The desk13 minA focus setup for people who have already tried nine focus setups
Why the tenth one fails on day nine like the other nine did, and what has to be different.
22 Aug · focus apps dont work for me
The Mac and the browser
Someone who fixed their phone and discovered the fix was half a fix.
Start with the guide: Blocking on a Mac →-
The Mac and the browser12 minWorking from home is a two-screen problem
What actually happens to the hours when the office and the sofa are the same room.
10 Oct · wfh distractions phone and laptop -
The Mac and the browser13 minSafari, Chrome, Arc, Firefox, Edge: which can actually be locked down
Five browsers, one table, tested rather than assumed.
6 Oct · block websites arc browser -
The Mac and the browser11 minBlocking YouTube Shorts but keeping the tutorials
Four ways to cut one feed out of one site while keeping the part you actually came for.
30 Sep · block youtube shorts only -
The Mac and the browser10 minA browser extension is two clicks from off. That is the whole review.
Why the most recommended category of blocker is the least effective one, in one diagram.
24 Sep · best website blocker chrome extension -
The Mac and the browser14 minA dog for your Mac
What the Mac version will do, what it will refuse to do, and when.
18 Sep · mac app blocker -
The Mac and the browser15 minScreen Time on a Mac is not Screen Time on an iPhone. Here is the list.
Everything that syncs, everything that does not, and the three gaps that matter.
13 Sep · does screen time work on mac -
The Mac and the browser11 minThe free Mac website blocker you already own, and its four holes
Copy-paste ready, with sudo explained, and the four ways it quietly stops working.
8 Sep · block website hosts file mac -
The Mac and the browser13 minHow to block a website on a Mac in every browser at once
Four methods, tested in five browsers, with the leak in each one named before you commit to it.
3 Sep · block website on mac all browsers -
The Mac and the browser12 minYou blocked TikTok on your phone. So you opened the laptop.
Why a phone-only fix lasts about eleven days, and what the second screen actually needs.
25 Aug · screen time doesnt work on mac
The phone you want instead
Aspirational rather than desperate. Browsing, not bleeding. Will share what they read.
Start with the guide: A quieter phone →-
The phone you want instead14 minDelete the app or guard the app: a decision you only make once
Three questions that settle it, and permission to choose deletion if that is the answer.
2 Oct · should i delete social media or limit it -
The phone you want instead12 minA home screen with nothing on it: the twenty-minute rebuild
Every app still there, none of them looking at you. Screenshots at each step.
26 Sep · minimalist iphone home screen -
The phone you want instead10 minGreyscale does not work either, and the three things it does do
The evidence is thinner than the advice. Here is what it actually supports.
20 Sep · does grayscale reduce screen time -
The phone you want instead12 minThe dumb phone experiment: what actually happens in week two
Week one is euphoric and every article stops there. Week two is the useful one.
14 Sep · dumb phone experiment -
The phone you want instead12 minBrainrot is a real word now. Here is what it actually describes.
Where the word came from, what it names that no clinical term does, and whether it is happening to you.
5 Sep · brainrot meaning -
The phone you want instead11 minDumb phone mode, without buying a dumb phone
An afternoon of settings that gets you eighty per cent of the way, keeping the camera and the maps.
30 Aug · how to make iphone a dumb phone -
The phone you want instead11 minTouch grass, unironically: the only thing that has ever worked
Why a walk beats every app on this list, including ours, and what to do with that.
24 Aug · touch grass meaning
Alternatives and comparisons
Has a shortlist. Is one honest paragraph away from choosing.
Start with the guide: Choosing a blocker →-
Alternatives and comparisons11 minBrick, Unpluq, and blockers you can lose down the back of the sofa
A physical key is the strongest friction there is, until it is upstairs.
8 Oct · brick app alternative -
Alternatives and comparisons13 minFreedom and Cold Turkey: when you want a sledgehammer
The two heaviest tools in the category, who they are right for, and what they cost in daily friction.
3 Oct · freedom app alternative -
Alternatives and comparisons12 minone sec, and the argument for a pause instead of a guard
A breath before you open it is a genuinely good idea. Here is what it does not cover.
27 Sep · one sec app alternative -
Alternatives and comparisons12 minScreenZen and the case for friction instead of a wall
Friction works until it does not. The exact point where it stops, and what to do then.
21 Sep · screenzen alternative -
Alternatives and comparisons10 minEvery screen time app, ranked by how hard it is to cheat
One axis, tested by hand on every app: how many seconds to get past it when you really want to.
15 Sep · strictest app blocker iphone -
Alternatives and comparisons10 minThe best free screen time apps, and what free costs in each one
Nine free tiers, and the specific thing each one is holding back.
10 Sep · best free screen time app iphone -
Alternatives and comparisons11 minOpal alternatives, including the case for staying on Opal
Six alternatives sorted by what you are actually unhappy about: the price, the strictness, or the vibe.
31 Aug · opal alternatives -
Alternatives and comparisons13 minForest, Study Bunny, Finch: what the pet apps get right
Why caring for a small imaginary thing works better than a timer, and where the trick runs out.
23 Aug · apps like forest
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