HomeUse cases
Five situations, five different setups.
Blocking for a two-hour work session is not the same problem as blocking at bedtime, and a revision block fails in ways a gym block never does. Each of these says exactly what to block, what to keep, where to put the Bluetooth key, and the specific way that situation goes wrong.
Start with the one you are actually trying to fix
Not all five. One situation, set up properly and used for a fortnight, beats five modes configured on a Sunday and abandoned by Wednesday.
Blocking distracting apps for deep work
A two-hour focus block that survives a boring paragraph. What to block, what to keep, and where the key goes so the session cannot be renegotiated.
Read the setupStudyingBlocking your phone while studying
Study sessions fail differently: the phone is also your notes, your timer and your group chat. A setup that survives a long revision block.
Read the setupSleepGetting your phone out of the bedroom
The evening block is the one most people need and the one they abandon first. Why it fails, and the setup that survives the hour before bed.
Read the setupFamily timeBeing present with your family, not just in the room
The block that is hardest to justify and easiest to feel. Three apps, two hours, and the reason a phone face-down on the table still costs you something.
Read the setupTrainingBlocking your phone at the gym and on runs
Forty-five minutes with music and a timer and nothing else. The one use case where the phone is genuinely needed — and still ruins the session.
Read the setupFour things that decide whether any of these holds
The same four mistakes turn up in every situation below, and three of them are about where the key ends up rather than which apps you picked.
Put the key where the friction is useful
Not the next desk — the next room. Far enough that fetching it is a decision, close enough that a genuine emergency is never a crisis.
Lock before you need to, not after
The moment to lock is when you sit down, not when you notice you have already lost twenty minutes.
Start with three apps, not thirty
A mode you actually use beats an exhaustive one you abandon. Add the rest once the habit holds.
Pair it with something you already do
Lock when the kettle goes on. Lock when you sit down to eat. Attach it to a trigger that already exists.
All four are downstream of one fact: locking is free, instant and works with Bluetooth switched off, while unlocking needs the key physically within radio range of your phone. If you want that mechanism rather than the situations, how it works explains it, and the guides go deeper on method than any of these five pages do.
A mode you actually use beats an exhaustive one.
Set up one situation, use it for a fortnight, then add the next. Locking stays free and instant either way — the key is the one-time buy, and where you leave it is what decides whether any of this holds.