{"id":571647,"date":"2026-03-29T08:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T08:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571647\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T08:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T08:02:14","slug":"five-tech-solutions-to-help-you-break-your-phone-habit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571647\/","title":{"rendered":"Five tech solutions to help you break your phone habit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"David<\/p>\n

March 29, 2026 \u2014 4:29pm<\/p>\n

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I pick up my phone roughly 80 times a day. I know this because I finally looked, and the number made me feel nigh on disgusted. I\u2019m a technology journalist \u2013 phones are literally my job \u2013 but even I\u2019ve reached the point where the reflexive scroll-check-scroll loop feels less like a habit and more like a pokie addiction I can\u2019t shake.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re reading this, you probably feel the same way. The average person now spends close to seven hours a day staring at a screen. This month, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google liable for building addictive products<\/a> that caused a young woman\u2019s mental health problems \u2013 a landmark verdict with thousands of similar cases pending. The platforms were designed to keep us hooked, and the question is now, what we do about it.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Brick is a small magnetic puck \u2014 a little bit bigger than your thumb \u2014 that uses NFC technology to disable whatever apps you choose.Eamon Gallagher<\/p>\n

Most of us have tried the obvious fixes: deleting Instagram, setting timers, placing the phone in another room. They work for a day or two. Then the FOMO kicks in, or you need Google Maps, or you just want to check one thing, and suddenly, it\u2019s midnight, and you\u2019re deep in a Reddit rabbit hole about second-wave emo bands from 1995.<\/p>\n

The good news is that 2026 has produced a genuinely useful crop of tools designed around a simple insight: willpower alone doesn\u2019t work. What does work is friction \u2013 making the bad behaviour slightly harder, slightly less rewarding, or slightly more annoying. Here are five approaches worth trying, plus a handful of rogue ideas that cost nothing.<\/p>\n

Brick<\/p>\n

The Brick is a small magnetic puck \u2013 a little bit bigger than your thumb \u2013 that uses NFC technology to disable whatever apps you choose. You tap your phone to the Brick, and Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or whatever you\u2019ve selected vanishes. No notification, and no option to override. The only way to get those apps back is to physically return to wherever you left the Brick and tap again.<\/p>\n

I found that my daily screen time in the two weeks that I habitually used the Brick \u2013 at work, on holidays in Tasmania and spending time with my family \u2013 dropped from nearly six hours to under three. It was transformative, and showed how compulsively I reach for apps, particularly in \u2018in between\u2019 moments.<\/p>\n

\"StephanieStephanie Miller has used Brick to break her phone addiction.Eamon Gallagher<\/p>\n

The smartest trick? Leave the Brick at home. It\u2019s magnetic: stick it to your fridge, your front door, or your side table next to your bed. When you\u2019re out with friends or at work, you simply can\u2019t unbrick. You just accept that the feeds can wait. And that dopamine hit you do get when you \u2018unbrick\u2019 is glorious.<\/p>\n

Unyoked \u2013 the Australian off-grid cabin network founded by twin brothers Cam and Chris \u2013 has been including a Brick in every cabin. The idea is to pair the physical device with Unyoked\u2019s deliberately sparse, no-Wi-Fi settings so guests can experience what a genuine digital detox feels like, then carry the habit home. Unyoked put me up for two nights to try it for myself and it effectively \u2018cured\u2019 some early signs of burnout. I got through one and a half books, explored some nature, and came out of it feeling much more present.<\/p>\n

The Brick costs $96 (no subscription, and there are usually sales), offers five emergency \u2018unbricks\u2019, and supports scheduling.<\/p>\n

Locked<\/p>\n

If the Brick is the American take on physical friction, Locked is the Australian one. Founded by Jordan Lingohr, Locked pairs an iOS app with a small NFC tag \u2013 available as either a keychain-style tag or a slim card that slides into your wallet. The concept is similar: tap your phone to block distracting apps, tap again to unlock.<\/p>\n

Lingohr says every other screen time app he tried had the same fatal flaw. \u201cThat \u2018off-switch\u2019 lives on your phone,\u201d he tells me. \u201cEffectively, that means you\u2019re carrying the off-switch in your pocket with you, wherever you go.\u201d It\u2019s the core argument for why physical devices like Locked and the Brick are gaining traction over software-only solutions.<\/p>\n

\"IfIf the Brick is the American take on physical friction, Locked is the Australian one.<\/p>\n

What sets Locked apart technically is its Strict Mode: activate it and iOS will prevent you from deleting the Locked app while a focus session is running, closing the obvious cheat of just uninstalling the blocker to reach social media. It\u2019s a one-time purchase with no subscription, the tag needs no battery or charging, and multiple iPhones can pair to the same tag \u2013 handy for families. There\u2019s no Android support yet, but it\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n

Lingohr\u2019s ambitions for 2026 extend beyond individual users. He says the company is pushing into workplaces and schools, where he believes the impact will be greatest. He\u2019s also clear about the cultural problem he\u2019s trying to solve: that it\u2019s become socially acceptable to stare at a six-inch screen while sitting, standing and walking, even in the company of other people.<\/p>\n

Apple Screen Time and Android Digital Wellbeing<\/p>\n

The tools already on your phone are better than most people realise, they\u2019re just poorly configured out of the box. Apple\u2019s Screen Time lets you set per-app daily limits, schedule full downtime windows, and restrict entire categories of apps. Android\u2019s Digital Wellbeing does roughly the same.<\/p>\n

The critical move that most people skip: set a separate passcode for Screen Time restrictions, then have someone else enter it. If you don\u2019t know the override code, you can\u2019t just dismiss the limit when temptation hits at 11pm. Combine this with Focus modes on iOS or Work and Bedtime profiles on Android, which can hide whole categories of apps from your home screen at scheduled times, and the built-in tools become meaningfully harder to bypass. Not impossible, but harder \u2013 and in the friction game, harder is everything.<\/p>\n

\"Apple\u2019sApple\u2019s Screen Time feature.A phone lockbox<\/p>\n

Hear me out: yes, they\u2019re low-tech, borderline absurd, and yet they\u2019re remarkably effective. Timed lockboxes \u2013 essentially kitchen safes with countdown timers \u2013 let you physically imprison your phone for a set period. Set it for two hours during deep work, close the lid, and the phone is gone until the timer expires. No emergency exit, no override, and no negotiation.<\/p>\n

\"AA phone lockbox.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the nuclear option, and it won\u2019t suit everyone. But for focused work blocks \u2013 writing, studying, creative sessions \u2013 it can be a godsend.<\/p>\n

Headspace and Calm<\/p>\n

This one addresses the \u2018why\u2019 rather than the what. A lot of compulsive scrolling isn\u2019t really about wanting to see content \u2013 it\u2019s a coping mechanism for anxiety, boredom, or restlessness. Apps like Headspace and Calm tackle the underlying drivers through guided meditation, breathing exercises, mood tracking and CBT-style tools designed to reduce the urge to reach for the phone as a default stress response.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Headspace app is popular for meditation.Netflix<\/p>\n

They won\u2019t block Instagram for you. But if the reason you keep opening Instagram is that your nervous system is jangling, and you don\u2019t know what else to do with your hands, teaching it to calm down might be the more durable fix.<\/p>\n

Bonus: Rogue ideas that cost nothing\"TheThe greyscale mode on iOS.<\/p>\n

Move all dopamine apps off your home screen. Stick Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and the rest into a single folder called \u201cLater\u201d on your second or third screen. The extra two seconds of friction is surprisingly effective at interrupting the autopilot reach.<\/p>\n

Switch to greyscale mode. Both iOS and Android let you render the entire display in black and white. It sounds weird and trivial, but colour is a core part of how apps hook your attention \u2013 those red notification badges, the vibrant thumbnails, the dopamine-engineered gradients. Strip the colour out and your phone becomes way more boring. Instagram in greyscale looks like a newspaper from the 1940s. It really can trick your brain; you\u2019ll be amazed how quickly you put the phone down.<\/p>\n

Neither trick requires downloading anything, buying anything, or admitting to anyone that you have a problem. They\u2019re just environmental tweaks that make the bad choice marginally less appealing. Which, as it turns out, is all most of us need.<\/p>\n

Get news and reviews on technology, gadgets and gaming in our Technology newsletter. Sign up to receive it every Friday<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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\"DavidDavid Swan<\/a> is the technology editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technology editor for The Australian newspaper.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 29, 2026 \u2014 4:29pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[64,63,203,105],"class_list":["post-571647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}