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 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
Block distracting apps during work for two hours: which feeds and inboxes to block, which work apps to keep, and where the key goes so the session holds.
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
How to stop using your phone before bed, when self-control is lowest: start the block an hour early, solve the alarm, and keep the key out of the bedroom.
Read the setupFamily timeBeing present with your family, not just in the room
Putting your phone away for family time, and keeping it away: three apps, two hours, and why a phone face-down on the table can still cost you something.
Read the setupTrainingBlocking your phone at the gym and on runs
At the gym the phone has a real job — music, a timer, your log — and still eats the rest between sets. What to block, what to keep, and where the key goes.
Read the setupOr start from who it is for
Four things that decide whether any of these holds
The same four mistakes can sink any of the five situations. Only one of them is about where the key ends up; the other three are about when and what you lock.
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 one tap in the app and never needs the key, while unlocking means getting up, going to the key and holding your phone against it. 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 is one tap and never needs the key — the key is the one-time buy, and where you leave it is what decides whether any of this holds.