If you were to walk or run 5 kilometres as fast as possible, would you keep moving until you got there? Or would you sit down for 5 minutes every kilometre?
It's a simple analogy, but let me explain:
Just like you, I've lost hours a day endlessly scrolling on the socials.
And sometimes, that's okay. It's nice to get a distraction or catch-up with friends.
But sometimes while eating dinner and scrolling through Tik Tok, I realize it's like my fifth time that day getting lost in the app.
Or I'm taking a lunch break, I grab my phone and open reddit. I blink and an hour has passed...
My iPhone sends me notification weekly sharing my screentime. Right now my average is around 3 hours a day...
But here is the kicker - and where I think there is an opportunity. My pickups average is 82 times a day... which I imagine is not atypical.
So in a full 16 hour day, I'm picking up my phone over 5 times an hour. Mostly those pickups are out of habit. Or to look at notifications that aren't remotely time sensitive.
Needing to restart my momentum every 10 minutes never allows me to get into deep work. And I know it's the same for you.
So maybe you can't run 5 kilometres straight - but you can easily take a breather by walking instead of stopping your momentum and sitting down on the track.
Imagine this...
You get bored working and you pick up your phone. You see on the screen a big ole stopwatch that's counting up. (Like it would while timing a run.)
This stopwatch is an app linked to your wake-up alarm. So it started counting when you first turned off your alarm.
You know that every time you pick up your phone, that stopwatch restarts because you've stopped your "run". You've interrupted your life with distractions.
Now, anytime you feel that impulse to hop on to instagram, you see that stopwatch ticking up.
Presenting you with the question, do you stop your "run" or do you finish?
Do you complete your task or get distracted?
This could be programmed to automatically track the amount of "runs" and time spend "running" you go on in the day. The goal would be to finish more longer runs. It could link to your screentime app to give you a breakdown of your phone time and "real life" or "running" time.
I have the philosophy that the less effort to use the app, the more it'll be used.
So if you want to build this, I wouldn't bother with a bunch of features and customizations.
Just show people how much time they spend not on their phone.
If you're living life in the real world, you're not on your phone. If you're taking a break on your phone, you're taking a break. I know I have the problem of thinking I could do both at once...
Someone make this app, and I'll be your first customer!