Great post,thanks! Trying to find a similar app to Applock for iphoneHere is an excerpt from my blog post on overcoming internet addiction
That's what worked for me
Step by Step Guide to Overcome Smart Phone Addiction
Step 1: Identify Potentially Addictive Apps on Your Phone
It may sound crazy but it's important to DEFINE what apps you really WANT to use on your smart phone.
This takes courage because you have to stop following and follow your own goals and your own agenda instead of being the victim of the mindless algorithm of a tech-company.
In his motivation manifesto, Brendon Burchard phrases it like this.
Let us make this day the day we take back our life's agenda from the grips of conformity and distraction. [...] Let us not forget that our simple efforts and daily triumphs can gather wight and motion to become an unstoppable force toward a focused and free life.
We must take a long, unflinching look at our habit of giving our lives and agendas over to others. We have to say no more often. We have to increase our focus. We have to fight harder to safeguard our time and our dreams and our souls.
Action Step
Ask yourself Where you would have to endure significant drawbacks from not using a specific app on your phone?
- Write down the apps that you want to use on a piece of paper.
- Rate the addictiveness of these apps on a scale from 1 to 10.
This could be something like not being able to use google maps in a new city or not using whatsapp when you meet with friends in a new restaurant.
Please be honest with yourself here.
Use These 3 Questions as Guidelines to Decide What Websites and Apps to Use
What's the BEST possible outcome
if I stop using this app?
What's the WORST possible outcome
if I stop using this app?
What's the MOST LIKELY outcome
if I stop using this app?
To give you an example I don't rate my sleep tracker or google maps very addictive. Maybe a 1 or 2 on the scale. For me, it's okay to have them on my phone.
Whatsapp is probably a 7, and Facebook is rated 8, Youtube and my favorite newspaper sites are rated 10.
It will be different for you. In Step One the goal is to raise our awareness and make logical decisions that are in line with our goals. This is best done on paper.
Step 2: Block Everything That Makes You Addicted to the Internet
Action Steps:
1. Delete every app that is potentially addictive from your phone.
2.Download the app Appdetox and add times for apps that you have to use less often but cannot delete completely.
3. Download the app Applock for android to block the play store and your internet browser
If you need to use these apps for professional reasons, use your desktop computer or laptop instead.
If you rated them 7 or higher it's worth to endure even significant drawbacks.
This is about YOUR life. You want to get rid of your internet addiction.
(I'll show you how to cope with these apps and make them less addictive on your computer below).
For example:
Here is a list of of addictive apps that I deleted or blocked on my phone 24/7 using Applock.
What I like about Applock is that you can set a complicated password that you cannot remember to unlock the blocked apps and/or settings.
- All browsers
- All email clients
- Play Store for new apps
- Youtube
- Skype
- Whatsapp (temporarily)
The only addictive app that is still on my mobile phone is Whatsapp because I found it to hard to quit yet because everyone uses it to organise offline activities.
To limit access to WhatsApp I use a 2nd app blocker called "AppDetox" and allow it only for one hour each day.
Then I block access to appdetox with applock.
This is like a 2nd line of defense. When I unlock AppDetox with my password, I'm not tempted to unlock Youtube or my browser in the settings of Applock.
Here are some apps that I still use on my phone:
I download all the videos and mp3's/ podcasts that I want to listen to on my desktop computer and place them into my drive folder.
- Google Maps
- Google Calendar
- A Sleep Tracker
- Amazon Kindle
- Google Drive to access to MP3's & videos
Step 3: Prepare for Emergencies with the Password-Photo-Hack
There might be some rare occasions where you might need a new app or access to the internet. Use the password-photo trick to take advantage of the delay discounting principle before you unlock the internet.
Action Steps:
1. Take a photo of a complicated password
2. Use this password in the AppLock-App
Why take a photo?
This ensures that you cannot simply copy/paste your password and makes it really inconvenient to cheat. That's using Delay Discounting in a very pragmatic and practical way to deal with internet addiction.
Unlocking the additive apps with Applock is too complicated without writing the password down again, yet the photo is always available in your phones gallery.
The 2nd benefit is that it will take you a while to enter the password. So you'll give your prefrontal cortex an additional pause to reconsider your decision.
Side note: After 1,5 years of using this trick I never had to unlock my phone due to an emergency.
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