i had been using the minimalist phone laucher for a couple of years. what it does is that it changes the mobile phone interface to only have text, so that you brain doesn’t open distracting apps by reflex. it also has a delay app open feature that makes you wait before you open an app. what it does is that it invokes your prefrontal cortex so that you can be aware about whether you’re opening out of reflex or intention.

it worked nicely for me but you can turn off the delay app rather quickly so it wasn’t as effective.

yesterday i decided to search for similar apps and i was positively surprised.

i dowloaded three apps - OLauncher, Intenty and App Pause. OLaucher changes interface to make the phone less attractive. Intenty makes you wait and asks you why you’re unlocking your phone. App Pause makes you wait before opening an app.

the combination is perfect. at once i thought that maybe a single app that has all of these features would be nice but then i realised that no that isn’t better for me. because when i have 3 apps, in order to turn the features off i’ve to do 3 times the operations. in the language of computer science, both are O(n) but having more n increases the time required.

its been less than 12 hours and i’ve already noticed myself a couple of times going for the mobile phone in reflex.

mindfulness meditation can make this even more effective. also what’s important is diverting that time to other activities. if you don’t then your brain will revert back.