I absolutely love this thing. It took me a while to actually pick this thing up. Because for some reason, I thought that I could use the native version of this app. That’s embed into the iPhone system. I think it’s called Tim or something like that. Anyway, Time allows you to unlock the app that you were trying to get into, so for example, if I wanted to get into Facebook and I had a bad habit. I’m just getting into it and unlocking it directly. Then it would just defeat the purpose, and it wouldn’t become a distraction. My office is upstairs, and the brick is actually on my fridge. And even though it is accessible, I find myself focusing more on the work at hand and not being so easily distracted. And it’s not just work. It’s also focusing on my family and focusing on my marriage. I find myself picking up the phone to check my apps that are locked about 100 times a day. It seems like. But with this Brick, I am Brick on average 10 to 12 hours a day, which is kind of liberating because I have my phone and can receive messages and phone calls without the distractions of all the other applications on my phone. Highly recommend to anyone wanting to increase their focus on. Not Rochester work, but every area of their life.

For at least 5 years the scroll has wasted my time increased my migraines and shortened my attention span. I keep the brick in my truck so I have to go outside to get to it. It’s been about a week and only about 10 minutes of scrolling from unbricking to check availability of something on Facebook marketplace and then getting sucked into Facebook. But it’s pretty neat the brick is able to block Facebook while allowing Facebook messenger so I can still see if someone is reaching out to buy something and manage all that while bricked. I’ve read a lot and done a lot of stuff this week. And the scroll is an addiction so there is withdrawal from it but art books help to fill that void because you can cover a lot of pages really fast just looking at pictures but there is no algorithm or anything messing with you it’s just a book full of art and the lore behind the art so you get sucked into a rabbit whole fast enough. A rabbit whole is a good place

This has been an INCREDIBLE purchase. It’s one step past screen time restrictions built into the phone, it allows you to fully make blocked apps truly unavailable to you. This has made my life so much better. I’ve regained 30+ mins of my life a day, which doesn’t sound like a lot unless you work 13 hour days like I do. It also allows me to carry my phone with me and use it like a tool (and for some harmless fun like Solitaire or the crossword) without descending into doomscrolling on the subway.The only reason this gets 4 out of 5 stars from me is that it’s a little buggy. I haven’t been able to get the counter that shows you how long your screen time has been bricked to reliably appear on my lock screen, and it resets often at random to 00:00:00 which is less ideal because that timer is part of what incentivizes me to keep going (TikTok has been off for 22 hrs, why break that streak now?). But I have no doubt that the Brick team will keep improving the app and fixing things in the future, and the device is 1000% worth it regardless.

I love this app. I used to combat distractions and addiction by leaving my phone elsewhere, far from my reach. For the last few years this has been impossible though, because I now have to be on call at work, and the phone is the page. Also, everything at work or home seems to require a phone nearby just to log in, due to 2FA. I just couldn’t seem to ditch the habit of picking up my phone and looking at it, but this is basically the same as being able to leave my phone somewhere else. I have the brick upstairs in a closet, and I operate in bricked mode nearly exclusively, with both my work and personal profiles being very locked down. It took weeks to “detox” and not instinctively grab for it, but I’m now reading books all the time instead, and I feel like my attention span has really increased. And my screen time app says my phone usage has dropped off dramatically. Thanks for inventing this!