Never use Safari on your iPhone, or why Beeminder is better than Apple Screen Time

Akrasia
1

Apple Screen Time doesn’t let you limit yourself to 0 minutes on an app. You can allow yourself 1 minute, but not 0 minutes. So what if you want to ban yourself from using a built in app like Safari on your phone? Here’s my old workflow.

  1. Set up Screen Time.
  2. Content restrictions → Allowed apps → Turn Safari off.
  3. Set up a passcode. Do the passcode with your eyes closed and only confirm it by muscle memory. Forget the passcode immediately.
  4. Install the Shortcuts app.
  5. Create two automations.
    5A. When Settings is opened → Go to Home Screen, Send a Notification (with an admonishment), vibrate phone, optionally add a Pavlok zap. This prevents you from messing with Screen Time.
    5B. When Safari is opened → Go to Home Screen, Send a Notification (with an admonishment), vibrate phone, optionally add a Pavlok zap. This means even if you turn off the last automation, go into Settings, reset your Screen Time passcode, and turn access to Safari back on, you still can’t get into Safari until you turn off this automation too.

Here’s my new preferred workflow.

  1. Create a Beeminder Do Less goal.
  2. Do all the above, but also, add Beeminder → Add a Datapoint to the second automation. Stingier. Yeowch.
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