Your phone is winning. It pings, it glows, it steals hours you’ll never get back.
Here are the four moves that actually work in 2025. I’ve used every one of them for years. They still work better than any new app or “focus mode” gimmick.
- Clear your home screen completely. Leave only your wallpaper showing. Nothing in the dock if you can stand it (I keep four essentials). First thing you see when you unlock? A photo that makes you smile — your dog, your kid, a sunset — not a wall of red badges screaming for attention. That half-second pause is enough to stop the autopilot scroll.
- Build a (nearly) distraction-free phone. Delete every infinity-pool app (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, Reddit — all of them). Keep only the one you genuinely need for business or joy (most people can live with zero). Delete email if you can; keep it in the browser only. Turn your phone grayscale (Settings → Accessibility → Display → Color Filters → Grayscale). Instantly less addictive.
- Do the notification cleanse (and schedule it monthly). Go to Settings → Notifications and ask one question for every single app: “Does this notification serve me or distract me?” If you’re not sure → kill it. You can always turn it back on. In 2025 the new killers are AI summaries, Gmail priority inbox pings, ChatGPT alerts. Murder them all. Leave only: calls/texts from your top 5 humans, calendar reminders, and credit-card transactions. Everything else waits until you decide to look.
- Use tech to protect you from yourself iOS. Set Downtime from 8 PM–7 AM (or whatever your non-negotiable wind-down is). Lock every app except Phone and one relaxation app if you must. Set a 30-minute daily limit on your remaining infinity-pool app (TikTok, etc.). When it hits zero, you have to enter a passcode you’ve never memorized (store it in 1Password and forget it). Android: Digital Wellbeing → Focus mode + App timers does the same job. Extra credit: Install One Sec or Opal. They force a breath or mini-delay before opening any addictive app. Works stupidly well.
You are not weak. The apps are engineered by people 100× smarter than both of us, backed by billions of dollars, to hijack your dopamine.
Your only advantage is choosing to fight back with deliberate friction.
Do these four things today and your phone goes from master to tool overnight.