Screen Time alternatives for adults who keep tapping 'ignore limit'

Built-in screen-time features are good at two things: telling you how many hours you lost, and letting a parent restrict a child's device. They are poor at the case where the person setting the limit and the person hitting it are the same adult.

> Why the built-in limits slide off

• ▪Ignore limit is one tap away, with no delay and no witness.
• ▪The passcode is one you set, so you already know it.
• ▪Reports arrive after the fact, when there is nothing left to decide.
• ▪Limits are per-day, so a bad evening simply borrows from tomorrow.

> What to look for instead

You want a commitment device, not a dashboard. Three properties matter: the duration is fixed in advance, the early exit is slow, and another human is involved. Everything else — charts, streaks, ranks — is decoration that helps you keep going but does not stop the 11 p.m. version of you.

A limit you can dismiss is a survey question. A lock with a key holder is a decision you only have to make once.

> How NoPhone compares

• ▪Duration set up front, from one to thirty days, and not shortenable from your phone.
• ▪Blocks by category — apps, app groups, and adult websites — rather than one icon at a time.
• ▪An early unlock goes through a key holder you chose while calm.
• ▪Verified locked hours as the metric, instead of self-reported willpower.

Keep the built-in reports if you like the data. Use a lock for the part where the data has never once helped.