Seven days. One email a day. No app required.

What the seven days look like

Each day is one step that works with the phone you already have. A few minutes, then you're done until tomorrow.

1. 1

   Day 1: name the app, take the baseline

   Name the one app. Write down two numbers from Screen Time: daily pickups, and how often that app is first used after pickup.

2. 2

   Day 2: count, don't change

   Tally every unplanned open of that app today. Change nothing yet.

3. 3

   Day 3: the pause, written out in full

   Before each open, breathe out, then three rounds: in for 4, hold for 2, out for 4. Then decide.

4. 4

   Day 4: add three seconds of friction

   Move the app off the first screen, turn its notifications off, and gray the screen after dark.

5. 5

   Day 5: give the reach somewhere to go

   Pick, in advance, the one thing you will do instead when you catch the reach.

6. 6

   Day 6: the evening rule, and the morning

   The phone charges outside the bedroom tonight.

7. 7

   Day 7: your before and after

   Take the same two numbers as Day 1, then keep the three steps that did the work.