Guides and research
Articles
Honest, cited pieces on why de-stimulation works, what the evidence actually says, and how to do it yourself on the phone you have, with the same restraint as the rest of the site.
Evidence · 2 min read
Does grayscale actually work?
What the field studies found: a measured drop in screen time, and how big it is.
ReadMechanism · 1 min read
Why de-stimulation beats blocking
The reactance case: remove the payout, not the access.
ReadGuide · 8 min read
How to make your iPhone grayscale for only certain apps
Two automations per app, a dozen menus in a strict order, an escape hatch before any of it, and the failure modes nobody mentions.
ReadGuide · 9 min read
The triple-click trick
The manual brake already on your iPhone: two minutes of setup, four situations where it earns its place, and one thing it fundamentally cannot do.
ReadGuide · 8 min read
Make Instagram black and white
Instagram goes gray and your camera stays in color, from two Shortcuts automations, a strict order of menus, and an escape hatch for the times they slip.
ReadGuide · 8 min read
Make TikTok black and white
The For You feed goes gray and the rest of the phone stays in color, from two Shortcuts automations, a strict order of menus, and an escape hatch for the times they slip.
ReadGuide · 10 min read
iPhone Shortcuts automations for grayscale: the full guide + where they break
Every menu, in the order iOS 26 actually presents them. Two automations per app, built by hand, and the ways the whole thing stops firing.
ReadGuide · 9 min read
The stimulation stack: color, motion, badges, autoplay, and the switch for each
Four layers hold your attention, mostly independently. iOS has a real switch for most of them, and none of them say no.
ReadArticle · 11 min read
Your brain on infinite scroll: normative dissociation, explained
Forty minutes gone and nothing remembered. That state has a name, a literature, and an intervention that works with the mechanism.
ReadComparison · 9 min read
one sec review: friction works, and where it stops
The best evidence that one sec works is also the map of exactly where it stops.
ReadComparison · 9 min read
Opal vs Brick vs doing something entirely different
Two good answers to one question (how to restrict access), and a third mechanism that never gets on the chart.
ReadComparison · 10 min read
ScreenZen vs one sec vs Dwindle: three mechanisms, one problem
Two of the three are friction. The third isn't, and that's the choice the review posts leave off the chart.
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