Blog
Writing about screen time, sleep and focus - based on published surveys and statistics.
How to Set App Time Limits on iPhone — Screen Time in About 10 Minutes
A tap-by-tap guide to limiting app time on iPhone with Screen Time, covering both the new iOS 27 layout and the Downtime and App Limits screens in iOS 26 and earlier.
How to Lock Your Phone Away While You Study — Three Stages You Can Set Up Yourself
Reaching for your phone mid-study is less a willpower problem than a furniture problem. Three stages — distance, friction, schedule — that a student can set up alone, with the survey data behind each one.
How Much Time Do People Actually Spend on Their Phones? Japan's Survey Data
Average screen time figures from Japan's government statistics and major private surveys, in one table — plus why the numbers disagree with each other, and the two figures that matter more than the average.
When Household Phone Rules Stop Being Followed — What to Try Before Taking the Phone
Japanese national data shows family phone rules thinning out as kids get older, and parents and children disagreeing about whether rules exist at all. A four-step way to rebuild a rule that survives.
5 Ways to Spend Less Time on TikTok — Starting With the In-App Settings
Five ways to cut your TikTok time, ordered from least to most effort: the in-app Screen Time tools, cutting the prompts that open the app, and layering a real limit on top when reminders are not enough.
iOS Screen Time vs App Blockers: What Each One Can Do, and Where Both Stop
How Apple's built-in Screen Time differs from third-party app blockers, the limits they share, and how to set things up so your messages and work apps keep working while social and video get blocked.
Phone Overuse Self-Check: 10 Questions to See Where Your Use Is Costing You
A 10-item self-check for when you suspect you are on your phone too much, with what each score band suggests doing next. Not a diagnosis — a way to pick which condition to change first.
Reaching for Your Phone at Work — Start With a Notification Audit
Checking your phone mid-task costs more than the minutes you spent looking. A 15-minute fix built on two levers — what prompts you to open it, and where it sits — without cutting off the messages you need.
7 Ways to Cut Back on Phone Use — Change the Conditions, Not Your Willpower
Seven ways to reduce heavy phone use, ordered by how much they tend to help. Since awareness alone barely moves the hours, each one changes a condition outside yourself: where the phone sits, what prompts you, and when.
How to Stop Using Your Phone Before Bed — 5 Steps That Change the Setup, Not Your Willpower
"Just five more minutes" is how bedtime slips by an hour. What actually helps with phones at bedtime is changing where the phone sits and what can interrupt you. Here are five concrete steps, with the survey data behind them.
Getting Your Commute Back From Your Phone — Different Plans for Morning and Evening
A 30-minute commute each way is 20 hours a month. Japanese survey data on what people actually do on the train, and a 30-second routine before boarding that changes how that time gets spent.
When YouTube Shorts Won't Stop — The Settings That Help, and the Ones That Don't
YouTube has in-app tools for watch time: a Shorts feed limit, break reminders, bedtime reminders and autoplay. Here is what each one does, where they stop working, and how to layer OS-level limits on top.