A while back I opened YouTube to grab a recipe, planning to start dinner right after. 45 minutes later I "woke up" from the Shorts trance. No dinner started, and I never even got the recipe.
That kind of thing kept happening, and it's not a willpower problem. Web pages used to have a "more" button at the bottom. That one tap was a decision point, and it got "designed away" around 2006. Infinite scroll exists precisely because even that much friction reduced usage. Thousands of very smart people have spent twenty years removing every barrier between you and the endless feed.
I tried a bunch of focus/screen time apps, and just didn't like them. They were complex, with all kinds of different modes. And everything was all about getting you to subscribe - but I avoid subscriptions like the plague.
PIM (Please Inconvenience Me) is me putting the friction back. It doesn't block apps, but when you open a restricted one, you need to complete a task. Like some typing, basic arithmetic, or tapping dots on the screen (what I like to call "the world's most boring video game").
You're never locked out. You just can't get in - or continue beyond your session time - without some effort. And you can customize the difficulty, make it as easy or hard as you like.
7-day free trial, then a one-time purchase, right now it's $14.99. No subscription, no ads, no tracking, no accounts — nothing leaves your device.
It's not great for parents wanting to restrict their kids screen-time, because of course you can always uninstall it (though I'm exploring some options for making that harder).
Having said that, there's no easy way to bypass the restrictions. No "skip for now" type button. And you can even lock the PIM settings so that you need a password to change them.
I'm planning a free F-Droid release. Right now what I really need is feedback from real people. Is it simple enough? The friction idea works great with me and one friend of mine - how about ya'll?
SMV279438•4h ago
That kind of thing kept happening, and it's not a willpower problem. Web pages used to have a "more" button at the bottom. That one tap was a decision point, and it got "designed away" around 2006. Infinite scroll exists precisely because even that much friction reduced usage. Thousands of very smart people have spent twenty years removing every barrier between you and the endless feed.
I tried a bunch of focus/screen time apps, and just didn't like them. They were complex, with all kinds of different modes. And everything was all about getting you to subscribe - but I avoid subscriptions like the plague.
PIM (Please Inconvenience Me) is me putting the friction back. It doesn't block apps, but when you open a restricted one, you need to complete a task. Like some typing, basic arithmetic, or tapping dots on the screen (what I like to call "the world's most boring video game").
You're never locked out. You just can't get in - or continue beyond your session time - without some effort. And you can customize the difficulty, make it as easy or hard as you like.
It's on both Android and iPhone: Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pleaseinco... iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pim-please-inconvenience-me/id...
7-day free trial, then a one-time purchase, right now it's $14.99. No subscription, no ads, no tracking, no accounts — nothing leaves your device.
It's not great for parents wanting to restrict their kids screen-time, because of course you can always uninstall it (though I'm exploring some options for making that harder).
Having said that, there's no easy way to bypass the restrictions. No "skip for now" type button. And you can even lock the PIM settings so that you need a password to change them.
I'm planning a free F-Droid release. Right now what I really need is feedback from real people. Is it simple enough? The friction idea works great with me and one friend of mine - how about ya'll?
I'll be here all day answering questions.