Daily Phone Block reminder

The hard part of blocking distracting apps isn't the block. It's remembering to start one before the evening disappears into a feed. Beyond Alarm's daily Phone Block reminder learns when you usually block and sends "Time to block your distracting apps" an hour before, every day. Tap it and you're on the Phone Block tab, ready to start.

What it does

Once you've started your first Phone Block, Beyond Alarm schedules a daily notification:

Time to block your distracting apps Start a Phone Block and keep the next hour for you.

• Timed from your habits. It arrives an hour before the time you usually start a block, worked out from your recent blocks.
• Hard to knock off course. It uses the middle of your last five start times, so one unusual late-night block doesn't move it.
• Quiet once you've blocked. If you've already started a Phone Block today, today's reminder is skipped.
• One tap to act. Tapping the notification opens Beyond Alarm on the Phone Block tab.

It works on Android and iPhone, and there's nothing to configure.

How it works

1. You start a Phone Block. Beyond Alarm notes the time of day, and keeps the last five.
2. It finds your usual time. It sorts those start times and takes the middle one.
3. It sets the reminder an hour earlier. If your blocks usually start around 9pm, the reminder comes at about 8pm.
4. It plans the next week. Reminders are laid out a week ahead and refreshed every time you open the app or start a block, so they keep rolling as long as you use it.
5. It skips today once you've blocked, because the reminder has nothing left to do.

Why an hour before

The moment you want to scroll is the worst moment to decide not to. An hour earlier you're still the person who planned the evening, and choosing a block length and a strictness takes a few seconds. You can start the block right then, or come back to it when it's time. Either way the decision has been made before the pull starts.

If you want the decision taken out of your hands entirely, start that block in Strict mode. There's no stop button until the timer ends, and free users switch it on with one short ad.

Beyond Alarm

Beyond Alarm does this part for you: the alarm will not switch off until you have actually moved, and the apps you pick stay locked afterwards.

When it helps most

• Evening scrolling: the block you mean to start after dinner and never do.
• Study nights: a regular revision slot that keeps sliding.
• Work-from-home afternoons, when the same hour goes missing every day.
• Building the habit: a few weeks of reminders and the block starts to feel like part of the routine.

Set it up

1. Open the Phone Block tab and tap Block now.
2. Choose what to block, how long and how strict, and tap Block for …. Allow notifications if you're asked.
3. That's it. From now on, the reminder arrives an hour before your usual block time.
4. Keep blocking at your real time of day and the reminder will follow you.

Related

• Phone Block
• Free Strict mode
• How to reduce screen time
• Revenge bedtime procrastination
• A 7-day digital detox plan