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Do you get shaky when your phone isn’t in your hand? Are you chronically online? Do you need a digital detox?

A year ago, I wrote Celebrate the Global Day of Unplugging. In that post, I explained the observance’s purpose, to bring attention to the importance of taking a break from 21st-century technology, embracing silence, and interacting directly with others. I also did a deep dive into the mental and physical dangers, as well as the damage to our productivity, wrought by the oh-so-compelling devices we carry everywhere.

We examined why it’s so hard to step away from our phones, from dopamine-dripping design to always-on culture, and explored tips for de-centering phones in our lives. It focused on lifestyle changes as well as ways to alter phones settings to make them less compelling. I mentioned some apps for reducing screen use and a phone designed to make essential work easier but social media less appealing. 

The next Global Day of Unplugging is from sundown this Friday, March 7, 2025 to sundown on Saturday, March 8, 2025.

According to Backlinko, in 2025, American adults spend an average of 4 hours and two minutes a day on phones. We are spellbound! (Cell-bound?)

Reducing screen time (and replacing it with a phone-free activity) can decrease depression and anxiety and improve social connections. What could you accomplish if someone gave you back even one of those four hours? What dreams could you achieve? (What literal dreaming could you do if you weren’t doomscrolling into the wee hours?) 

Most of the strategies I shared last year required willpower. Today, we look at tech that maximizes functionality but inserts friction to minimize the seductive draw of our phones.

MINIMAL PHONE

Minimal is an upgraded version of the phone I previewed last year. Resembling an early Kindle more than a modern phone, it use an E-Ink Touch display to reduce eye-strain and promote healthy sleep. 

It’s higher tech than a flip phone, but less inviting than a typical smart phone. Fewer hits of dopamine means you’ll only grab it when you need it instead of when you want it, and you’ll want it less often. Plus, without blue light, it’s less destructive to your sleep patterns.

Some of the key features and benefits of Minimal are:

• The black-and-white E-ink display is designed for eye comfort — With a 4:3 aspect ratio for optimal viewing, 4.3″ screen size for productivity without distractibility, and 230 ppi for improved readability, you could use Minimal to read all day long (but don’t!) without eye strain.
• It dramatically reduces distractions — There are no intrusive blink-y features and bright colors. The more you focus on the actual work you need to do, the quicker you’ll be off your phone and spending time with family, friends, hobbies, or even your dream world. 
• The QUERTY keyboard is tactile — Remember how powerful you felt when you used your BlackBerry? Wouldn’t you love that sense of accuracy and speed again? With a 74mm-width keyboard for comfort, a 35-key (plus hot-key) layout, and .25mm key travel (the depth a key can be pressed) for precision tactile sensation, you’re set up for old school power.

• Minimal is made for the long run —  Too often, phone batteries die after about two years and the hardware stops being supported by the upgrades far too soon. Planned obsolescence is a huge part of most manufacturing models, but Minimal promises it will be supported by software updates for five years and is “crafted with quality materials…to stand the test of time.”
• Minimal still has all the essential Android apps you need —  With full access to the Google Play Store, you can download any necessary apps (like Dropbox, CashApp, Google Maps, etc.) with no muss and no fuss. It supports Android Auto, can be linked via Bluetooth to fitness watches,,,, and supports contactless payments like Google Pay.

Minimal may be visually minimal, but it’s maximal when it comes to features:

• Along the top phone edge, there’s a microphone, phone speaker, and proximity sensor.
• The bottom edge has a 3.5mm headphone jack (for all of us who are tired of cordless ear buds falling into the street (or soup!), a USB-C port for charging, and an audio speaker.
• There are two cameras: a 5 MP rear-facing (selfie-taking) camera to the bottom left of the keyboard, and a 16 PM front-facing camera (with flash) on the back.
• Above the keyboard, there’s a simple navigation bar.
• Side buttons provide a fingerprint unlock power button, dual sim/expandable storage, volume  up/down and an E-ink refresh button. (Note: Minimal does not support E-Sim.)
• Built-in goodies include a flashlight, compass, and gyroscope, and it supports Wi-Fi calling and hotspot functionality.

Choose 6 GB memory with 128 GB storage or 8 GB memory with 256 GB storage.

There are three versions of the Minimal Phone: Pebble (white), Onyx  (black) and Fusion (black top with white key board). Minimal is $499.00, they’re offering $100 off of pre-orders. (Shipping is free world-wide!)

 

MINIMALIST PHONE (APP)

Not to be confused with the Minimal Phone, there’s also a Minimalist Phone, which isn’t a phone at all. Rather, it’s an Android app designed to reduce cell phone addiction by changing the user interface by which you see and launch your apps.

Minimal Phone replaces the default Android screen with a custom home screen which encourages more mindful use of phones and directs your focus to your most productive apps. Instead of being pestered by pop-ups, counters, bright colors, and icons on a traditional home screen, the mostly icon-free, minimalist user interface helps you recognize how unhealthy your usual phone usage patterns are (all those dopamine-seeking behavior!) and curb mindless scrolling.

Note, Minimalist Phone’s monochrome interface isn’t the same as just setting your Android to black-and-white or your iPhone to greyscale. Instead, it also lets you view selected apps in black-and-white. Use it just where it’ll be the most helpful, while leaving color in place for apps like Maps, where color is essential.

Monochrome reduces screen time because image-focused apps (like games and social media) just aren’t that appealing in black-and-white. Reducing color and vibrancy curbs the impulse to “bed rot” and scroll until the sun comes up.

• Install Minimalist Phone as you’d install any other app from the Google Play Store; uninstall it just as easily to return to a traditional home screen. There’s no hardware or tinkering. Add your essential apps to the launch screen — but seriously, don’t add the time vampires!
• Minimalist Phone supports all versions of Android phones with operating systems v 6.0 and higher — dating back to 2015!
• It’s privacy-focused. Minimalist Phone “doesn’t sell any personally identifiable information (PII) to 3rd parties” and it’s GDPR-compliant, complying with stiff European privacy regulations.
• Maintain access to all of your apps; the non-essentials are just hidden to keep from going down a rabbit hole. If you want to open a hidden app or unhide an app, just access the phone settings through a gear icon on the app page and select Home screen> Hidden apps.
• The app links to your Google account, not your device, so you can use it on any/all devices linked to your Google neighborhood.
• Other features include app blocking (so you don’t need willpower), time limits, and mindful launch delays to prompt you to reconsider opening an app.

Minimalist Phone has a 7-day free trial, after which there are three different plan levels: monthly, annual, or a one-time purchase. Unfortunately, you have to download the app to see the pricing. (To change your plan, you must cancel it in the Google Play store or wait for the current period to expire, and then re-subscribe at a different level, or email them to request a change.)

DUMB PHONE (APP)

We’ve had the “benefit” of smart phones for a while, but wasn’t life blissful apps and texting? Remember feature phones? Flip phones? We weren’t so stressed before we carried the power of a desktop computer in our pockets.

Enter: Dumb Phone. As with Minimalist Phone, it’s not a phone, but an app, and one designed to help you avoid (and conquer the cravings for) easy distractions and dopamine hits. If you liked the idea of the Minimalist Phone app but were bummed that it was Android-only, Dumb Phone has you covered — it’s for iOS users.

Michael Tigas came up with the Dumb Phone when he was creating features for the focusedOS app, which hides iOS distractions with one click; he hoped to further reduce all of the visual distractions that suck us into using phones longer than planned.

Apps are still on the phone, and they still work. They’re just not imitating street-corner floozies or three-card monte hucksters, begging for attention.

The idea is that if the icon and dopamine rush of tapping aren’t front-and-center, you’ll only use the apps you really need and want. 

Download the app and add the Dumb Phone widget and wallpaper to your home screen. Then Dumb Phone takes your fancy, expensive, bells-and-whistles iPhone and transforms it into a minimalist-styled phone that:

• Simplifies your busy home screen — It eliminates photo-filled, graphics-heavy wallpapers, colorful icons, and notification badges, leaving just text-based buttons. Your phone becomes a sleek time traveler from the late 1990s.
• Breaks your “Oh, let me just grab my phone so I never have to be left alone with my thoughts” habit — Without all the “Hey, look over here!” yoohoos, you’ll use your phone when you want and need it, without unnecessary distractions.
• Gives you speedy access to your most important apps — Whatever apps you want to use frequently will be just one tap away, without having to swipe pages of screens.
• Access everything with just one hand — even with the largest iPhones, your thumb can reach everything!

Dumb Phone’s basic level is free. It costs $2.99/month to upgrade, or $9.99/year at a discount, or $24.99 for a one-time purchase to gain access to all functionality and configurations. Get it on the iOS App Store.

Dumb Phone’s blog is also full of advice for curbing the addiction to specific apps. (Sigh, TikTok, I’m looking at you.)

 

BRICK (DEVICE)

Brick is neither a phone nor an app. But it is an actual device. It’s a bit like a chastity belt for your phone, and the key is kept out of convenient reach.

The creators, two college students, looked at the concept of distraction-free flip phones, which had hardly any useful tools, and modern smart phones, which have all sorts of useful apps, but ceaseless distractions. Where’s the middle ground? You can’t just leave your phone at home if you still want to be able to hail a ride share, make contactless payments, map your way to the right street, or tell someone you’re running late.

Brick’s creators felt that an app or software solution (like Apple’s Screen Time limits that blocked you from using distracting apps wasn’t the way to go. You could always do an end-run around your carefully-made plans, just like when you put the chocolate in a high cabinet to discourage yourself from snacking but find yourself climbing a step-stool at 1 a.m.

Instead, by having a physical device acting as a “key,” and the key is elsewhere, temptation is easier to ignore.

Taking the notion of bricking your phone (a colloquialism for making a device useless), they found a way to make your phone brickable, but not permanently bricked. 

 

Buy the Brick device, then download the Brick app from the iOS App Store, create an account, and follow the steps in the set-up guide. From there, create up to five custom “modes” (like “work mode” or “home mode”), to limit what apps you can access during specific times of day. (You can even block specific websites in Safari.)

To (temporarily) brick your phone to focus on what’s important, tap the center Brick icon on the screen and press the phone to the Brick. Alternatively, if you don’t have the Brick device with you, you can “remotely” Brick your phone: just hold down on the Brick button in the app for 5 seconds.

However, you still need the physical device to unBrick your phone.

The video of how it works can’t be embedded, but you can view it on the Brick site. Other features:

• View your history — Track how much time you spend Bricked each day.
• There’s no battery, so there’s nothing to charge. 
• Brick doesn’t track which apps you use, nor does it access any of your data.
• You can use one Brick with any number of phones; you could also buy multiple Bricks to assign to one phone so that you could have one at your office and one at home (or your significant other’s home) to cover lots of different life situations.
• Brick supports iPhones running iOS 16.2 or later; an Android version is expected in the future.

It comes in grey and white, and has anti-slip silicone surface and a high-grade magnet in the bottom to ensure it stays securely in place, wherever you decide to put it — on the fridge at home or a whiteboard or filing cabinet in the office. 

Think carefully about where your Brick(s) should live so you don’t counteract your productive work time by searching all over your home, office, or car when you’re ready to switch modes. You don’t want to finish work, head to the airport, and realize your vacation-related apps are bricked and your Brick is back in the suburbs or at your office.

Buy the brick for $59 and you get complete access with no subscriptions or fees; there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you buy two Bricks, you get 10% off and free shipping; for three or more Bricks, you get 15% off and free shipping. You can also sign up for email and get a “mystery” discount.

 

LIGHT PHONE

A Light Phone is a bare-bones, 5G/4GLTE, unlocked cell phone with just a few non-negotiable tools. Rather than changing the way you launch apps, it’s specifically designed for “going light” so your quality time has fewer distractions and more quality in it. 

 

Light Phone III has a black-and-white E-Ink screen, similar to the Minimal Phone. Because these screens don’t emit blue light, they won’t impact sleep patterns; it can also be read in direct sunlight. To clear the screen between different pages, the E-Ink screen “refreshes,” flashing the screen between black and white, making previous information go “poof.” There’s also a screen light for being able to view the phone at night.

Use it to make calls and send text messages. When you have a voicemail, there are no floating badge notifications, just an asterisk next to the digital clock. Tap to see your recent (unanswered) interactions, then return the message with a call or text (or, y’know, don’t).

Press the large center button on the right side of the phone to access the toolbox menu, your key to navigating to the Light Phone’s various settings and tools, and back to the home screen.

Manage your Light Phone from a dashboard on the website to import contacts or add/remove optional tools. Adjust brightness with an analog wheel (like a radio dial) on the phone’s left side.

The Light Phone’s other tools include an alarm, timer, calculator, music and podcast apps, notes, calendar, directions, and a phone directory. The updated Light Phone III also has GPS, a fingerprint ID power button, Bluetooth, a noise-cancelation microphone, camera (with a two-step shutter button), and flashlight, can be used as a hotspot and it supports voice-to-text.

Light Phones operate on the Light operating system (i.e., not Apple or Android) and requires active, compatible nano-SIMs and work a standalone devices; they don’t need to connect with a smartphone (though you can use them to complement your usual iPhone or Android phone when you need to take a break). Either swap your SIM between your Light Phone and other smart device, or get a second phone number assigned to the Light Phone, as you prefer.

The older Light Phone II comes in black or light grey, and includes a free SIM card for $299; the new Light Phone III is $799 but is currently $599 on pre-order and will be available June 2025. (Light Phone II will continue to be available Light Phone III launches.) There are colorful cases to fit the Light Phones.

The three Light Service plans are limited to the United States and run on AT&T cell towers: 

• • $30+tax/month for unlimited domestic calls and messages with 1GB of data
  • $45+tax/month for unlimited domestic calls and messages with 5GB of data
  • $70+tax/month for unlimited domestic calls and messages, plus data for hotspot usage.

However, because the Light Phone is unlocked, you don’t have to use Light Service; use a SIM from your own carrier and keep your service from AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Ting, Mint, or US Mobile.

 

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Changing how your phone works is great, but in the end, the best solution to toxic scrolling and phone addiction isn’t to change your phone, but to change yourself. Here are some apps that give keep your behavior accountable.

CLEARSPACE (APP)

Clear Space calls itself “a lever for you at your best to influence you at your most distractable.”

Personally, I think it’s more like tollbooth, requiring you to pay a toll that prompts you to slow down and consider your route.

Clear Space recognizes that dopamine cravings will be less powerful when you pause, creating a virtuous “atomic” habit to replace an unappealing one. Aligning intentions with actions can be hard, but Clear Space offers accountability in three ways:

• Before you can use an app, you must do a centering exercise. The screen guides you through a prompt to breathe, do a push up, or similar, and then tells you how many times you’ve visited the apps you’ve cordoned off (and where you are in your scrolling budget), and provides a motivating quote.

• Set a session length for using any app or block some altogether, and ClearSpace will literally do an intervention before the social media addiction monkey gets on your back.

• Pick specific apps in which you want avoid getting entangled.

Clear Space redirects those impulse clicks (like the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups I grab when I’m waiting too long in the cashier line) and prompts you to think before you click. It retrains you to stop impulsively opening apps “to check” them; instead it encourages you to stop, breathe, and think about what you really want to achieve.

Clear Space also provides data insights to analyze app usages patterns and track your progress over time. 

Clear Space is free and available for iOS and Android phones, as well as a Chrome extension for the web.

 

Check out Clear Space’s great productivity blog posts to help break phone addiction. 

STEPPIN (APP)

Steppin gets you off your butt, locking you out of your social media accounts until you go for a walk! Created by Paul English, the founder of the travel search engine Kayak), Steppin has you trade steps for screen time.

In other words, if you want to scroll, you have to roll! (Oy. Sorry.)

• Identify which apps you want to limit (social media, games, streaming videos, or whatever steals your focus) and use the app blocker controls. 
• Set your own rules — For example, set a minute of app time for every 100 steps you take; decide how often you want the limits to refresh. Customize goals to fit your focus: reducing screen time, motivating yourself to get fit, or achieving digital wellness. Re-set available screen time daily, weekly, or not at all.
• Earn your screen time — The more you walk, the more screen time you unlock. 
• Track your steps seamlessly across your favorite fitness trackers — Steppin syncs with the built-in step counter in your iPhone and integrates with Apple Health App. Hitting step goals reinforces the habit, and habit tracking motivates you to maintain a healthier) balance.  

You can also connect Steppin to your Apple Watch, Oura Ring, Fitbit, Google devices, or Garmin tracker, and your privacy is protected: “Steppin uses Apple’s Screen Time API to enable app blocking without storing sensitive personal data.” 

Steppin is currently free, but may have an annual fee in the future. Find Steppin for iOS in the App Store or for Android at the Google Play Store.

(A similar app, promoting fitness and discouraging chronic scrolling is the iOS-only Fitlock.) 

ONE SEC

The One Sec app uses powerful research on phone (and specifically, social media) addiction to halt mindless instant gratification in its deeply-scrolled tracks:

• Configure One Sec to make you think twice, prompting you to explain the purpose for each attempt to access social media apps. Do you really want to go to Instagram or are you seeking an escape from work, stress, or boredom?
• Trigger One Sec to stop you whenever you open Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, TikTok or any other app on your iPhone or Android device. You can also block/limit web sites!
• Set an intention for your social media use. If you planned to just check if people are reacting to your blog post share, One Sec will check in with you in one-to-five minutes to make sure you haven’t gone down any rabbit holes.
• Visualize your “open attempts” data in graphs to motivate further progress. 
• One Sec prompts you to take healthy pauses to focus:

One Sec is free for iOS, Android, and Mac browsers and can be synced across devices.

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This is only a sampling options to get some accountability from your phone when it’s hard for you to summon the willpower to step away from the addictive aspects of modern technology. 

Just last week, Rhys Kentish, a London-based app designer, announced the Touch Grass app. When it launches later this month, the iOS app will require users to go outside, take a photo of themselves touching grass, and upload it before they can access distracting apps. (It’s based on a Gen Z slang expression: when someone is melting down or acting weird, they are told to “touch grass” to get fresh air and gain perspective.)

Whatever it takes, right?