Want to unplug for the holidays? I bricked my iPhone to prevent doomscrolling - and it actually worked

[ad_1] ZDNET's key takeaways Brick is a $59 system that blocks you from accessing your most-used apps It is on sale for $47 proper now It helped me develop a greater relationship to my cellphone Its constructive reinforcements work higher than rivals or Display screen Deadlines. nov / 2025

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As each side of our working and social life is digitized, display habit has develop into much less an exception to our way of life and extra a extensively accepted attribute of it. I see this mostly after I ask my mates, household, and coworkers what number of hours a day they spend on their telephones. The solutions range from three to eight hours.

I common round 4 hours of my day on my cellphone, checking emails, responding to texts, scrolling social media, and checking the climate. That is 4 hours I may very well be spending studying a e book, writing an article, studying learn how to predict the climate, calling a liked one, and doing something moreover checking the time suck and mind rot that's social media websites and messaging apps.

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Each October, as common daylight dwindles and my power ranges deplete, this sense of realized helplessness by the hands of expertise involves a head. I've no power to rise up from my mattress. It takes me some time to construct the braveness to transit to the health club. What do I do as an alternative? I sit on my mattress and I scroll.

I scroll via monetary recommendation posts telling me that I ought to be investing far more out there than I already am, I scroll via engagements and weddings my former classmates are celebrating, I scroll via reactionary content material strangers submit on the web for clicks, and I scroll via a few of the most sinister information my eyes can see and my mind can fathom. All this content material is jumbled in, and I let it wash over me like I am mendacity on the sands of a pathetic ocean.

As soon as I attain this level, I delete my social media apps. I attempt to put my cellphone in one other room whereas I work, eat, and do chores round the home. I create a stricter schedule and drive myself to depart the home extra. Then, every week or two later, as soon as I've returned to my pure, steady, ripen, not rotten, mind, I redownload all these apps. Maybe it is just some weeks or months, however the cycle continues.

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I've tried the cut-off dates, the app blockers, and utilizing social media on a browser as an alternative of the app itself. So this October, I attempted one thing new. I had seen protection of the corporate Brick and its miracle-working system that successfully locks customers out of their high-demand apps. Individuals had claimed the minimalistic, magnetic dice gave them their time again. I will be the decide of that, I believed to myself.

The parents at Brick despatched me a tool, which I instantly started testing upon reception and have been for the previous few weeks. TL:DR? This system has completed numbers on my relationship with my most addictive apps. Here is how.

The way it works Brick is a grey, magnetic sq. with a appropriate app. Upon downloading the app, an individual selects the apps they wish to disable as soon as their cellphone is bricked. Brick makes use of NFC expertise, which can also be present in contactless funds, digital wallets like Apple Pay, and safe entry controls, resembling digital keycards used to achieve entry into buildings, to allow and disable app use. Tapping the brick, or "bricking," blocks using these apps till the cellphone is tapped as soon as once more and "unbricked."

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You'll be able to arrange schedules to dam apps throughout particular occasions of the day and modes to dam sure sorts of apps. I started testing the product by making a mode that blocks my most-used apps, specifically Messages, Instagram, Fb, Threads, TikTok, and LinkedIn.

Brick offers you 5 free "unbricks" you should utilize in an emergency, once you aren't close to the bodily Brick.

My expertise 'Bricking' my iPhone I have not arrange a schedule but, as a result of I am happy bricking my system upon my very own volition and unbricking after I have to examine messages or posts from mates. Bricking the system after I acknowledge my very own want for distance from my cellphone felt like a simple first step at curbing my cellphone habit. A schedule felt too stringent. I can see the scheduling function changing into handier as soon as I've spent a number of weeks bricking my cellphone and developed much less of a reliance on recurrently checking it, of which I am nonetheless engaged on.

Nina Raemont/ZDNET My cellphone utilization is the worst (and makes me really feel the worst) whereas I am at residence. Scrolling via social media between subway stops or checking messages sometimes on the workplace is not my challenge. It is the hours I spend losing as soon as I get residence from a busy day of labor, or the time I spend losing away on the weekends that I may very well be dedicating to hobbies.

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In order that's the place I primarily use the Brick. My roommates, nevertheless, have used the Brick earlier than studying on the park, they usually reported that it helped them focus longer. One Monday evening, I bricked my cellphone after which journal for 90 minutes, fully and completely undisturbed.

I really like bricking my cellphone earlier than bedtime, which, within the phrases of my roommate, looks like "shutting the house pc down on the finish of the evening." From time to time, I will be mendacity in mattress and remembering I wish to examine an app or ship a textual content.

Doing so would drive me out of my mattress, down a protracted hallway, and into the kitchen to unbrick my cellphone. It made me rethink my cellphone utilization selections.

Within the morning, after waking, I will go to my kitchen, the place my Brick is caught on the fridge, and unbrick my cellphone. This provides me round an hour earlier than work, throughout which I can make amends for messages and the each day happenings.

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Then, as soon as I start work, I brick my cellphone once more. After no less than an hour of zero distractions, I will reward myself with a fast unbrick. I examine my messages or scroll for a couple of minutes and rebrick. It is just like the Pomodoro impact, however for cellphone habit.

Working with out the fixed pings or easy accessibility to social media jogs my memory of the productiveness I might have whereas doing my homework on an airplane earlier than Wi-Fi turned obtainable -- that undeterred, distraction-free form of productiveness and clearheadedness that comes with disconnection from the skin world.

Why it really works for me Nina Raemont/ZDNET Brick makes entry to my most-used apps a privilege I really feel like I need to earn via endurance, somewhat than one thing I can take without any consideration each time I would like. It additionally jogs my memory that the variety of occasions I examine my cellphone to see if somebody has reached out is disproportionate to the variety of notifications I obtain per hour. In brief, there isn't a want for me to be checking it as typically as I'm.

Not like a display time notification or restrict, which is enabled as soon as somebody reaches their each day app restrict, Brick positively reinforces my time spent with out my apps. A widget pops up when you brick your system, displaying a timer exhibiting how lengthy you've got been offline since bricking.

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It immediately contrasts the unfavorable reinforcement that's the "You've got reached your each day Instagram restrict" notifications I obtain via Display screen Time. Within the app, you can even see how a lot time you've got spent bricking every day. All these options and touches assist me construct the case for myself that I can really go with out these apps for extended durations.

What I would wish to see improved You needn't brick your system to provoke a schedule, say at 9 a.m., as soon as you've got began work. However you will want your Brick readily available at 5 p.m., once you wish to unbrick your system. That is irritating in case you're not in the identical location as your Brick as soon as the clock strikes 5 p.m., however there is a workaround, which a good friend let me in on.

If you wish to unbrick your cellphone after the allotted brick time is over in your schedule, my good friend really useful creating one other schedule instantly after your first schedule ends, after which unbricking a random app. This permits the scheduling function and unbricks the specified apps with out requiring the bodily system.

My good friend additionally talked about how Brick did not register his change in time zones when he was touring, one thing he'd like Brick to enhance.

ZDNET's shopping for recommendation I extremely advocate Brick in case you wrestle with recurrently checking your cellphone or losing time on social media. In the course of the first full week I used it, my display time decreased by 7%. Its constructive reinforcements, somewhat than admonishments once you've gone over your allotted display time, incrementally construct the case you could, certainly, go with out these apps.

I would advocate this most to individuals searching for a productiveness increase -- whether or not that is one you are in search of out on or off the job. After bricking my cellphone one evening, I made a decision to go on a not-so-addictive however still-distracting app earlier than mattress. I watched one YouTube video for round two minutes, till I spotted I may very well be studying my e book as an alternative. I am unsure if I might have made that alternative with out Brick.

I do know, $59 is a excessive worth to pay for self-control. Nonetheless, from my expertise with the system, it's price it for the standard of life improve and the long-desired autonomy from my units that I've regained. Plus, in case you purchase it throughout Brick's vacation sale, you may get a $12 low cost that cuts the value by 20%. This is able to make a improbable reward for anyone, whether or not they're a social media obsessed teen or unfocused father trying to lay off their cellphone.

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