Ask HN: Mobile phone addiction help?

Isn't it already possible for free? I mean, you can always install a mod rooted Android and use if as you wish

A lot of folks are saying a technical solution isn’t the answer, but I’d say it’s a core part of getting to the next stage.

I’d recommend reading James Clear’s Atomic Habits to get a high-level view of what your body/mind is doing when you reach for certain apps/impulses.

Personally, I’ve found that installing blockers like Freedom and setting up timed schedules has significantly increase my productivity and cut back on wasted device time. Fwiw, the “fun” parts of the internet turn off at 10pm and don’t go back on until noon the next day.

You can also set a timed block at the router level, set a password for the setting via a password manager, give the password to a friend, and then delete it from your manager.

I find by simply removing the easy option to engage, the impulse to do so significantly diminishes. It’s only after you’ve felt what that diminished impulse is like and see the effects on productivity that you can then take bigger steps to change your habits.

So, I’m a big advocate for technical solutions because they help reduce need for self control / impulse control by removing the option on a schedule you define when you are your “best” or “most optimistic” self. (Yes, they can be circumvented, but you can also make that significantly onerous as to be usefully frictive.)

A hack that has worked for me is to randomly generate a password and write it down on a piece of paper. Use this pass on your attention-sink websites (for me twitter and ig).

This will make it impossible to login when you aren't home which gradually helps you lessen the habit.

At home, the time to fetch the password is significant enough for me to reconsider the behavior and I'm able to overcome the fleeting urge.

For twitter specifically, Ive replaced the behavior to sometimes checking individual URLs. I've also figured out who I care about (the 4 names I can store in my head!).

I'd say Ive recuperated 95% of my time back using the random written password.

I've suffered from similar problems (anxiety/ADHD/compulsive behavior). Definitely had endless scrolling mess with my sleep and exacerbate mental health issues. I've tried Apple's Screen Time feature, but found it far to easy to bybass. Until they fix that, here's the system that's worked consistently, if imperfectly, for me:

1. Download Apple Configurator and put the phone in supervised mode. This will require you to wipe the phone, so make sure you have contacts, photos, etc backed up. Configurator will allow you to block apps you couldn't otherwise delete like Safari and the App Store. 2. Create a profile on Configurator and whitelist the websites you are allowed to visit. For me, this is mostly just login pages for various apps that use a webview for sign in. 3. Install Focus (heyfocus.com) on your mac. It'll take some tweaking to get the settings right, but it'll allow you to set up a scheduled blocker for various apps/websites. I have the Configurator app blocked during all but a short window at the beginning and end of the day.

This has allowed me to pare my phone down to the essentials. It's annoying from time to time, but it leaves an escape hatch for situations where I've needed more capability on my phone. Been using this for about three years and it's mostly worked.

Gabb just raised $14mm to try and solve this problem