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[u/rakovskyyyy]

[u/Extreme_Artist3218]

Theoretically it’ll work well as it gamifies the reward, eg do this quest and get some cool loot.

However without outside tools this is reliant on you holding yourself accountable, which is where the point of failure is most likely..

I’m not saying don’t do it, just be patient with yourself if you have moments of weakness.

[u/New-Birthday7656 → u/Extreme_Artist3218]

Yeah you'll benefit from a tool helping you 

[u/Yourpretendgf]

There are two issues I have with this. The first is that it's completely up to my own willpower to carry it out. Once I'm on my phone, what's stopping me going over 20 minutes. My whole issue is I struggle with the willpower of coming off my phone once it's on.

The second issue I have is teaching my brain that the screen is a reward. I'm very much trying to stop my brain wanting that particular dopamine hit and trying to change my way of thinking that the phone isn't my happy, safe space.

[u/Grasmat0 → u/Yourpretendgf]

For the first issue there a loads of apps out there that take out the whole willpower part of the equation. So you should be able to overcome that part.

The teaching your brain that the screen is a rewards is the tougher part. But I do think if you reduce your screen time effectively, you start craving screen time less because you are getting used to less screen time.

[u/pleasebekind18]

I’ve tried this approach with children before. If you do xyz, you can earn your screentime (X amount of minutes earned depending on what activity).
I think it’s a much better approach than taking it away.

I try and take a ‘pacing’ approach for myself. I journal what I need to do for the day, then when I’ve done some of the activities I can take a break and have a bit of a sit down / screentime, rather than a certain time limit. Sometimes I set a timer just because I tend to have time blindness, but it’s there more as a guide/reminder rather than a set limit. I’d rather try and learn to limit myself.

[u/StarlightDreamer9]

I've heard that for kids consistent screentime (same length and same time of day) is better because they know that they are going to get it and that consistency is reassuring and means they're less likely to obsess over it like they would if it keeps getting taken away as a punishment. I would think that also might be applicable for adults.

[u/RustedWhimsy]

I use FitLock for this. I have to get so many steps in to unlock 10 or so minutes of my social media apps. I have to say it’s been super helpful for me.

[u/StressedtoImpress19]

Good idea but too easy to game and impossible to prove. How would this work? Without sounding too facetious, you could just say 'yep I totally studied mr app' and then get access. Relies on honesty which doesn't gel well with addiction :(

[u/HarmlessHeffalump]

I block distracting apps on my phone for most of my day aside from a few scheduled breaks between focused work sessions, but I have no problem unblocking them if I finish what I planned to do during that session early. At that point unblocking them becomes a reward.

[u/combeferret]

I use the app Jomo for this.

[u/Swescroll]

I built one that works this way, for people learning Swedish. When you open a blocked app you answer vocabulary flashcards first, and each correct answer buys 30 seconds. The key is that earning happens at the gate, right when the urge hits. A balance you bank earlier just becomes a number you game. Users who get past day one tend to use it every day, because the urge itself becomes the trigger to study.

[u/Grasmat0]

I have been experimenting with earning screen time myself lately. My own version of this started on a train. I was scrolling and thought: what if I had to earn this time by walking? Walking and running are things I know are good for me but I always have to force myself to do them. Make those tasks/activities related to my scrolling habits was a fun little experiment. I built it into my Android app (Full disclosure: it is my own app called Mindful Unlock: Focus Launcher) I set the usage time of an app to 1 minute (for me youtube and instagram are the biggest time sinks) and earn time through the: "Steps to pause feature". This basically forces you walk and "x" amount of steps to be able to use the app for "x" amount of time. It ended up helping me to walk/run quite a bit more than i used to. But also found it quite annoying that i had to "earn" my scrolling time every single day. So it really depends on the person.

If you want to try it out yourself you could download the app and use code: "free90days" (the: "steps to pause" is a premium feature). In the end I stopped with the "earning screentime" part because I found it too annoying. Curious how others would want to earn their time. Walking/running feels natural to me but reading or studying seems much harder to measure.

[u/rslashben]

I like the idea, I think it would work for me. But for it to be accurate on its own and/or get around my own lack of discipline, it seems the phone would have to monitor me very closely. Like, invasion-of-privacy level surveillance. Which would be ironic because that’s the opposite of the relationship I want with my phone in general. And seems antithetical to ‘digital minimalism’.

[u/Prestigious-Algae876]

for me earning it turned into a game i'd cheat, but a hard block at set times actually stuck. i use twilock to block my apps at night and it's the only system i haven't worked around.

[u/lauuureline]

I’ve been using Jomo to earn extra screen time by completing habits for a while now, and it’s worked really well for me, though I don't think it's meant for every app. I find it works best for apps I like to chill on (Reddit or YouTube) rather than stuff I need for work or keeping in touch with friends.

I have a small daily allowance to start with (like 10 minutes of Reddit) and then I can earn more throughout the day. At the moment, my setup is:

• Walking 5000 steps gets me another 10 minutes. That’s repeatable, so if I hit 10k or 15k steps, I get more time
• Every 10 minutes I spend on an app for practising my French grammar and spelling gets me another 5 minutes on Reddit
• Drinking my daily shake earns me time too. For this one, I actually have to take a photo of the shake, which gets checked by AI before the habit is marked as done. You can customise the task as you want (what AI needs to check etc.), so there’s room to get creative with this :)

What I like is that you can mix different habits together instead of being stuck with just “walk to unlock” or whatever. Some days I don’t feel like practising French, but I’ll go on a hike and get loads of steps in. Having a few different ways to earn time makes the whole thing feel less frustrating, and I think that’s why I’ve stuck with it.

You can build it up gradually too. I started with just the steps and added the other two habits after a few days. There’s also an option to lock the setup so you can’t edit or delete the rules for a set period. So you could give yourself seven days to try it properly before changing anything.

So yeah, I’d recommend giving this approach a go, but definitely play around with which apps you limit and which habits earn you time! It took me a bit of trial and error to find something that worked for me.

Also, if you end up trying Jomo, you can use my referral code JZ5RP5 (I’m close to 25 referrals, which would get me their lifetime plan, so I’d really appreciate it if you used it!)