Want To Quit Doomscrolling? Here Are 5 Tools & Apps To Keep You Off Your Phone

Smartphones have become pretty much essential in our daily lives. We use them to communicate, listen to music and podcasts on the walk to class, find directions to get pretty much anywhere, and so much more. They make all kinds of necessary tasks easier, but they also make it so easy to get distracted from what we need to be doing — or, in the current news cycle, get sucked into doomscrolling.

Doomscrolling is basically when you spend an extreme amount of time just scrolling through your phone, whether that’s on TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, or even news outlets. At the baseline, it’s a time-suck — especially during the school year when things are super busy, spending that much time on my phone just feels like such a waste. But doomscrolling can also negatively affect your mental health.

But even if you set a goal of spending less time on your phone, it can still be so hard to actually make it happen. When I’m studying and I see a notification on my phone, I feel like I have to check it, even if I know it’s not important. Or when I want to take a five-minute break to clear my head, then next time I look up, a half hour has gone by. It feels so hard to break the cycle!

That’s where these tools and apps to keep you off your phone can come in to help. 

The Brick 

The Brick is a physical block that removes distracting apps and notifications from your phone. It basically just turns the phone into something that is only helpful for necessary tasks, and not an endless well of distractions. When you get your Brick, you set up the apps that you want it to remove, and when you are ready to use it, you simply tap your phone on it, and it will go into “brick” mode. The Brick currently retails for $59. 

Focus Friend App 

With this app, you can set timers for as long as you want to encourage you to stay off your phone. The catch is that the app has a little character that knits while the timer is going, and when you finish your timer completely, it stays super happy and you get credit to buy decorations for the character’s room. But if you end the timer early (by going on your phone), it gets really sad and doesn’t finish its knitting project. It’s cute — and even better, the app is free to download!

One Sec App 

This app is designed so that once you have it downloaded, it will pop up every time you attempt to open some sort of social media on your phone with a reminder to take a deep breath and ask if you are really sure that you want to proceed. Opening social media can pretty much feel like muscle memory on our phones, so this app is designed to help combat that and make social media use a bit more intentional. It will also tell you how many times that you have opened social media that day. This app is also free to download. 

Opal App 

This is another app that is free to download (although the more advanced features in the app can cost money) that essentially allows you to set limits on your phone in terms of how much you want to use certain apps. You can set it to only allow you to open certain apps three times a day, and also create certain focus modes for yourself that won’t allow you to open certain apps while getting work done. It also will pop up a reminder when you try to open an app, asking you to reconsider if you really want to spend time on your phone at that moment. You also will collect gems in the app after completing your focus sessions. 

Roots App 

Another free to download app, Roots can help you limit certain apps and give you reminders on those apps to try and limit your screentime. The app really focuses on balance of phone use and reminding users that there are so many more awesome things to do than just scroll aimlessly on your phone. It also shows you detailed time tracking of your phone habits, which can be super helpful and motivating. 

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