Software can be switched off in nine seconds by the version of you that is tired. An object in another room cannot. If you have already tried apps and settings and neither held, that is not a failure of character — it is information about what kind of help you need, and this is that kind.
No affiliate links here either. Some of what follows is expensive and some of it is a bad idea for most people, and I have said which is which.
Nothing on this site is sponsored, affiliated or paid for. There are no affiliate links, no advertising, no sponsored placements and no tracking. Nobody can pay to appear here or to be described more kindly. There is also no signup: no email address, no account, no cookie banner. If a company on this page later offers me money, this line is how you will know they were turned down. Why it is all free →
Physical devices
These sit between you and the phone you already own rather than replacing it, which makes them the cheapest thing to try in this category.
Brick
A small magnetic tile. Tap your phone to it to start a block; normally tap again to end it. Strict Mode can close the easy settings and deletion loopholes, while five Emergency Unbricks remain.
Price: $59 once as checked 10 August 2026. No subscription. · Works with: iOS 17+ and Android 12+ as checked 10 August 2026
Useful when software limits are too easy to dismiss but you still need selected phone tools. Michael's full Brick review explains the setup that finally worked for him and where the device still falls short.
Unpluq
A keychain tag that acts as a physical key — blocked apps only open when you tap the tag.
Price: Hardware plus an ongoing subscription. · Works with: iPhone and Android (needs NFC)
Same idea as Brick, but it is the only device here with a recurring fee. Compare the two-year cost before choosing.
ScreenZen halo
A small Bluetooth device that blocks chosen apps automatically when you walk into the room it is in — your bedroom, for instance.
Price: $49 once. No subscription. · Works with: iPhone, Android, tablets
The most elegant answer to the bedroom problem specifically. It works without you having to remember to do anything, which is the point.
A time-lock box (kSafe / Kitchen Safe)
A container with a countdown timer. Once you press the button it does not open until the timer runs out.
Price: $59–$69. · Works with: Anything that fits
Crude, cheap, effective. Also useful for a whole family at dinner. It is a plastic box, not a safe — it is a commitment device, not security. Michael's full K-Safe review explains how he uses it and when Brick is the better choice.
Yondr pouch
A locking pouch you keep your own phone in, opened by tapping a base station. What schools and comedy venues use.
Price: Not really sold to individuals; the home version is $249 and often out of stock. · Works with: Any phone
Worth knowing about because your child's school may use it. Not a practical home purchase for most people.
Minimal phones
Be honest with yourself here, kindly. For some people one of these is the answer. For others it is an expensive way to feel virtuous for three weeks before quietly going back, several hundred pounds down. The line to read on each one is what it will not do — that is the part the marketing skips, and it is the part that decides whether you keep it.
Light Phone III
Calls, texts, alarm, calculator, camera, turn-by-turn directions, music you load yourself. Monochrome screen.
Price: $699 as of April 2026, when Consumer Reports reviewed it. Worth knowing this price has been $399, $599, $699, $799 and $899 at different points in eighteen months, so check before you order.
What it will not do: No browser, no email, no app store, no social media. Links in messages arrive as plain text you cannot tap. Music must be side-loaded — no Spotify. Not compatible with Google Fi, Cricket or US Cellular.
The flagship of the movement, and the most complete answer if you genuinely want out. Expensive, and the limitations are real rather than charming — read them twice before ordering.
Light Flip
A flip phone with a small internal screen, a physical keypad and no touchscreen at all.
Price: $299 — but it does not ship until 2027.
What it will not do: No selfie camera, no touch input, no NFC.
Announced July 2026, not yet shipped. Worth watching rather than buying.
Mudita Kompakt
E-ink screen, six-day battery, calls, messages, camera, offline maps, and hardware switches that physically cut the microphone and the mobile modem.
Price: $399.
What it will not do: No app store. You can side-load Android apps but the maker warns many will not work properly on an e-ink screen.
The best build quality here, and the privacy switches are unique. The e-ink screen makes typing slow — which is either the problem or the point, depending on your temperament.
Punkt MP02
Calls, texts, tethering, and encrypted messaging built on the Signal protocol.
Price: CHF 299, and frequently out of stock.
What it will not do: Verizon is not supported at all, and T-Mobile lacks VoLTE — which in the US is a serious practical problem.
Beautiful object, real carrier headaches in America. Check compatibility with your network before you fall in love with it.
Wisephone II
A full-size touchscreen phone with maps, messaging, camera, music and a few vetted apps — but no browser, no email, no social media.
Price: $399, plus a mandatory subscription of about $15 a month.
What it will not do: Not supported on Verizon, Google Fi or US Cellular.
The closest thing to a normal phone that still cannot doom-scroll. The compulsory subscription is the catch and it is not well advertised — factor it in.
Minimal Phone
E-ink screen with a physical QWERTY keyboard, running full Android with the complete Play Store.
Price: $449.
What it will not do: It runs full Android. Nothing stops you installing TikTok on it.
Be clear about what this is: it does not block anything. It just makes scrolling and video unpleasant because of the e-ink refresh. That is a real effect, but it is friction, not a wall.
An e-ink phone (Bigme HiBreak Dual, Minimal Phone)
A phone with an electronic-paper screen instead of a bright one. It runs Android, so technically everything still works — but the screen redraws slowly and in grey, which makes scrolling a feed genuinely unpleasant rather than forbidden. Some people find that a better deal than a phone that cannot do things at all.
Price: Roughly $400–$500. Check current listings; these come and go.
What it will not do: Video is close to unwatchable, photographs look like newsprint, and the app you need at an airport may be painful to use.
The interesting middle option. Nothing is blocked; everything is just slightly annoying. If you resent being told what you can do, look at this one.
Sunbeam F1 Horizon Bluebird
A basic phone sold mainly to families: calls, texts, maps, music, camera. No browser and no social media, and a parent can decide which of the remaining functions are switched on.
Price: $279.
What it will not do: No browser, no apps, no social media — deliberately.
The most sensible first phone for a child who needs to be reachable. Cheaper than the design-led options and built for exactly this job.
Things that are not screens
Every one of these replaces a specific reason you pick the phone up. That is the whole trick: you are not removing something, you are giving the job to something that cannot also show you the news. The alarm clock is the cheapest item on this website and probably the most effective.
An alarm clock
Any cheap one. This is the single purchase that lets the phone leave the bedroom, which is the highest-impact change most people can make.
About £10 / $12
If you buy one thing on this whole page, buy this.
A basic e-reader
A Kindle, Kobo or similar with no browser and no apps. Reading without something else one tap away.
From about $100 second-hand
Most people who go back to books do it because they had something to read that could not also show them the news.
A separate music player
An old iPod, a cheap mp3 player, or a phone with no SIM used only for music and podcasts.
Whatever an old one costs
Fixes the specific trap of picking up the phone for music and putting it down forty minutes later.
A paper notebook and a pen
For the thoughts, lists and half-ideas you currently open the phone to record.
A few pounds
Sounds trivial. It is not. Reaching for the phone to write one thing down is how a great many evenings begin.
A wristwatch
So that checking the time does not require picking up a device that also has your entire life on it.
Anything
The oldest fix on this page and still one of the best.
A proper camera
Even a cheap compact. Photographs without a feed attached.
Second-hand from very little
Worth it if a lot of your phone use starts as photographing something and ends somewhere else entirely.
A two-phase alarm clock (Loftie)
An alarm that wakes you gently and then again a few minutes later, plus white noise and a timer.
$170 new, refurbished from about $99
It exists for one reason: to make the phone unnecessary on the bedside table. A ten-pound clock does the same core job — this one is for people who will not give up the sleep sounds.
A visual timer (Time Timer)
A dial that shows time draining away as a shrinking block of colour. No screen, no notification, no phone unlocked to set it.
About $30–$40
Made for classrooms, which is why it also works for children — and for anyone who opens the phone to set a timer and resurfaces twenty minutes later.
Before you spend anything
The settings already on your phone — free, ten minutes, and enough for a lot of people.
App blockers and browser extensions — two of the best are free and open source.
What no app can fix
Everything across these three pages works the same way: it puts something between you and the reach. That is worth doing, and for a lot of people it is enough.
But if you take the phone away and the evening feels unbearable rather than just quiet, then the phone was doing a job for you — and no blocker touches the job. That is not a character flaw. It is the most common thing in the world, and it is what the free course actually deals with; it spends far more time on what goes into the space than on the screen itself.
And if you have tried all of it and none of it holds, that is worth taking seriously rather than personally. Free meetings run every day, they cost nothing, and you are allowed to turn up and say nothing at all.
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Michael has spent much of his working life online—and much of the rest of it trying to stop that technology taking over. He has thrown a phone into a lake, locked devices in boxes and experimented with long periods offline. He writes about what helped, what failed and how to keep the useful parts of digital life.