I really dig the idea behind Brick,
which I heard about via the Shop Talk
Show Discord gear channel this morning.
Install the brick app on your iPhone.
Select which apps you want it to block,
and then when you "Brick your iPhone",
the only way to unblock those apps is
to physically bring your iPhone back
to the Brick, presumably put somewhere
in your house that makes it annoying
to have to go to, so you stop trying to
access distracting apps on your phone.
I like that it's nice hack on the built-in
Screen Time settings, which you can make
use of in iOS with the added benefit of
a real world nag moment that's hopefully
enough to trip up most of our brains.
At $84 Canadian it's not a cheap
solution, but because it doesn't
need batteries and has a built-in
magnet for throwing on a fridge, it
should last a lifetime I'd think.
And as an added bonus, there's
no ongoing subscription fees.
Other things to note from their FAQ, 1
brick can be used by multiple iPhones.
So for a family or a roommate
situation, one is all you need.
You can also use multiple bricks with
one iPhone, so you could have one
at home, at the office, et cetera.
There are five emergency un-bricks
included with each purchase, so
if you lose your Brick, you're
not completely outta luck.
Some people claim they have no
issues putting aside their devices
and focusing on nature and how the
ever present crush of the world
today helps them feel so alive.
But for the rest of us, something
like Brick could help make sure
we don't spend 10 hours trying to
get to the end of Reels or TikTok.
