Digital Device Usage (Self-)Regulation
Looking back, this summer 1 seems to have passed in a flash. Admittedly, I didn't do as many meaningful things as I had wished: just a bit of maths, a small chunk of CS, a few casual explorations in other fields, a couple of parties, some catching-up with one or two old friends, and a lot of fuss over going abroad.
Amid all the miscellaneous activities, however, I've made several noteworthy discoveries, and one of them is how to effectively self-regulate digital device usage.
On MacBooks
The first step of this discovery was made around this time last year. I remember I had just finished reading this post from Richard Yang's old AoPS blog ryang rants. I searched for software performing what he had described and then came across this application called 1Focus. It's been of great help to me ever since.
In a nutshell, the power of this application lies in its ability to let you schedule literally uncircumventable block periods for websites and apps on Mac. If you have set a block period for an app or website you were previously addicted to, then congratulations — you are on the right track. Even if you suddenly feel an unstoppable urge to use some blocked app or browse some banned website, you'll still have to wait till the next time the block period ends (and this might be just a 1-minute long period in the middle of the night, depending on how harsh you are on yourself). 2
Yet as many other tools, 1Focus is imperfect. One of its downsides is that, as of now, it can only be used on MacBooks, not on iPhones or iPads.
On iOS devices (namely iPhones and iPads)
As we all know, besides intriguing content one can find on a PC, apps on mobile phones and tablets also contribute their share of human inefficiency. In fact, through my own observations, people (including myself) generally procrastinate more when using their smartphones than when using computers.
This is actually what I'm going to talk about next: controlling iPhone and iPad usage.
Implementing features similar to those of 1Focus on an iOS device is hard, mainly due to the various built-in restrictions of the device itself. Within these limits, many third-party apps designed to control screen time usage have tried to maximise the strengths of their blocking functions, but all of them appear to fail at preventing users from intentionally disabling screen time access 3, which is something that must be granted to these apps to make them work.
After some research this summer, I discovered the password-locker website, which, coupled with the Screen Time function on every iOS device, enables you to set non-bypassable App Limits on iPhone.
More specifically, the website uses a smart algorithm to help you generate an easy-to-forget 4 4-digit screen time passcode for iOS's screen time function. It then stores this passcode, making it retrievable, but also allowing you to adjust how retrievable it is. Moreover, a dummy Apple ID is used as the passcode recovery Apple ID, the account email and password of which are also stored on the website in a customisable way.
Of course, if you have a trustworthy friend who is willing to set up a screen time passcode for you and use their own Apple ID as the recovery Apple ID, then you wouldn't need to use password-locker. I found that the website gives me greater autonomy over the process and is more convenient if I wish to update relevant settings, so I haven't enlisted help from others in this respect.
Some disadvantages of this solution are the inflexible nature of iOS's screen time setting (compared to 1Focus) and the slightly expensive cost of the password-locker’s membership. Still, the combination works for me, and more importantly, it is quite uncircumventable.
Just a random song recommendation containing a linguistic joke at 1:21 which I think is somewhat amusing.↩
It is wise to set emergency allowance for apps which are simultaneously addictive and commonly used though, in case real emergencies occur.↩
The most successful app I've seen so far is probably Opal, but even its reputation as the best Screen Time App cannot stop its clever users from finding ways to turn off the Screen Time Access granted to it.↩
I recommend humming songs or reciting the digits of while generating the passcode, so as to further lessen your impression of the numbers just entered.↩