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Ask HN: Whats the best friction approach to breaking phone habits

1 points by artzev_ ↗ HN
been thinking about friction design patterns vs pure blocking for phone habits. blocking feels punitive - you hit a wall every time. friction is different - you add a 5-60 second delay before opening the app, but you still decide to open it. the pause breaks the automatic reach and forces intention.

any hn folks tried approaches like this? does friction actually change behavior better than removal/blocking? curious what patterns work best in practice.

3 comments

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OgsyedIE
Physical replacement of the phone with a tablet. Phone usage goes to 0% without any difficulty.
TheLNL
I read some article some years ago about increasing input latency to an annoying level through software (probably wouldn't work for passive media consumption like in the case of YouTube though, maybe you could also progressively dim the screen and add noise)
apothegm
Physically putting it in a shut drawer in a different room.