ONE QUESTION AT A TIME

The block list.

Short guides for the specific app you're stuck on — what the built-in iPhone and Android controls actually do, where they quietly fall short, and what changes when the toll is three questions instead of a timer.

Block Instagram

The Explore feed, Stories, and why "Ignore Limit" undoes Screen Time in one tap.

A feed with no natural stopping point, and the app's own screen-time nag it's easy to dismiss.

A feed that rewards you on no fixed schedule, which is exactly what keeps you checking it.

Block X (Twitter)

The fear of missing a conversation that's already moved on by the time you catch up.

Streaks turn a normal break into something that feels like a loss. It isn't, but it feels like one.

Thousands of communities means there's always one more thread — a rabbit hole with no bottom.

The same scroll as X, tied to an account you can't fully separate from Instagram.

Block Pinterest

Scrolling that's framed as planning, which is what makes an hour of it feel productive.

Checking it feels like work, which is exactly why it doesn't feel like the distraction it is.

A reblog chain with no algorithm to blame — just tags, and one more post in the thread.

Its whole design is built around a surprise notification you can't plan for.

No engagement-tuned feed to blame — just a chronological timeline and the feeling of falling behind.

A real-time timeline plus the sense a whole community just relocated here.

It isn't just a feed you could ignore — it's tangled up with payments and logistics too.

The same feed-and-notification mechanics as Facebook, aimed at a different audience.

Messaging apps.

No algorithm to blame — the pull is unread badges, group chats and the guilt of an unanswered message.

Block Messenger

Showing as online creates its own quiet pressure to reply, on top of every unread badge.

Enough subscribed channels and a chat app starts behaving like a news feed.

It isn't one feed pulling you in — it's a dozen parallel conversations, each with something unread.

No algorithm and no engagement tactics. What's pulling you back is just the people.

The pull isn't procrastination — it's the sense that ignoring a work channel has its own cost.

Block Microsoft Teams

Chat, meetings and calendar pings blended into one stream, hardest to ignore mid-call.

The same unread-badge, group-chat mechanics as WhatsApp, for a different set of people.

Video & streaming.

Autoplay doesn't wait for you to decide on a next video — it starts one for you.

Block YouTube Shorts

It's one tap from the main app, which blurs "watch one video" into "scroll an endless feed."

A countdown you have to actively cancel is harder to stop than a feed you have to keep scrolling.

A stream you step away from doesn't wait for you the way a video does.

Block Disney Plus

A back-catalogue built for marathon-watching pulls differently than a discovery feed.

Block Prime Video

It's bundled into a subscription you're already paying for, which changes the psychology of stopping.

Once you've sat through the ad, quitting right after feels like wasting it.

Block TikTok Live

Live gifting and multi-streamer battles turn watching into a transaction.

The rabbit hole here is usually a portfolio or a project, not an algorithm.

Block Dailymotion

A smaller recommendation engine still recommends.

Block Crunchyroll

A simulcast release schedule creates its own checking habit.

Prestige TV creates spoiler-avoidance pressure on top of the usual autoplay.

Games.

It isn't one game pulling you in — it's a platform of thousands.

A match runs fifteen minutes minimum and can't be pretend-paused.

Block Minecraft

The pull here isn't a reward loop — it's flow state and an unfinished project.

Block Clash of Clans

The game tells you exactly when to come back — building timers schedule your next check-in.

Block Clash Royale

Three-minute matches and a chest timer pull you back on two different schedules at once.

Block Brawl Stars

Team modes add a social cost to leaving that a solo match doesn't have.

Block Candy Crush

A lives system that runs out, and a paywall timed to your most frustrated moment.

Block Royal Match

A renovation storyline gives level-clearing a second reason to matter.

Block Coin Master

A spin mechanic borrowed directly from slot machines, wrapped around a village-building game.

Block Subway Surfers

An endless runner has no level to finish and no episode to end.

A round needs a full lobby of real people to work at all.

Block Genshin Impact

A daily energy timer and limited-time characters pull you back on two schedules at once.

Block PUBG Mobile

A season-based rank you can lose by not playing is a different kind of pressure.

Block Call of Duty Mobile

One app, two match lengths, two different habits, each pulling differently.

Block Pokemon GO

This is the one entry on the whole list that asks you to actually go somewhere.

Block Monopoly GO

Limited-time events rotate faster here than almost anywhere else on this list.

Block Free Fire

Short matches make "one more" true almost by definition.

Block Mobile Legends

Leaving mid-match carries a real, enforced penalty, not just social guilt.

Block Honor of Kings

A daily login streak and skin collection pull you back between matches, not just during them.

Block Stumble Guys

Requeuing takes one tap, which removes almost all the friction that normally slows "one more round."

Shopping.

One-tap ordering removed the pause that used to come before every purchase.

Prices low enough that almost any single item clears the bar for "why not."

A countdown timer on nearly every product page, not just the storefront.

An auction ending soon is a live event, not a browse.

A one-off secondhand item is real scarcity, not the manufactured kind.

Block AliExpress

The reward arrives weeks after the decision, which is exactly what makes over-ordering easy.

Browsing here feels like planning a gift, which lowers the guilt of a long session.

Flash deals and price-drop alerts that pull you back several times a day.

Free returns mean you never have to be sure before you buy.

Hundreds of brands in one catalogue turns browsing into a comparison that never ends.

News & forums.

Block Google News

A developing story is designed not to have an ending, so the checking doesn't either.

Block Apple News

Baked into the lock screen and the widget, not just an app you have to open.

Block Hacker News

No algorithm, no infinite scroll — just a habit of refreshing the same short list all day.

A notification that someone answered pulls harder than any feed update.

A reading list that grows every day and gets revisited on almost none of them.

Block Flipboard

The flip gesture is a tiny reward on its own, separate from whatever's underneath it.

A subscription means the next issue arrives whether you asked for it that day or not.

Dating.

Most swipes go nowhere. That's the exact ratio that makes an occasional match feel worth it.

An unanswered match disappears in 24 hours — a real, ticking social deadline.

Marketed as designed to be deleted, it still runs on daily curated picks that pull you back.

The grid updates by real-world proximity, live.

A virtual currency for visibility turns dating into something closer to a mobile game.

"See who liked you" is a curiosity gap with a price tag attached.

It shows you the people you already walked past today, which is its own kind of FOMO.

Gambling & betting.

Block DraftKings

Real money changes what the right tool is. Read this one first if it applies to you.

An expiring profit boost creates a loss-averse rush to bet before it disappears.

In-play betting on almost every micro-event in a match, not just the final score.

Crypto deposits make the stakes feel more abstract, not less real.

Finance & trading.

Block Robinhood

A live portfolio ticker gives you a number that changes on its own, all day.

Crypto markets never close, so there's never a natural pause in checking them.

Leverage turns a price chart into something closer to a bet than an investment.

Block Trade Republic

One-tap trade execution removes the pause a confirmation screen used to force.

A social feed of other people's trades, built directly into a brokerage.

Browsers.

Almost every link tapped anywhere on an iPhone opens this one for you.

A blank new tab isn't blank — it's a personalised news feed waiting to load.

Dozens of open tabs function as a reading list that never gets read.

Cashback points for browsing turn the act of looking something up into a small reward loop.

A browser that pays you in crypto to keep watching ads is a genuinely different incentive.

Chat-app sidebars built into the browser mean checking a message never counts as leaving it.

Audio.

Autoplay radio picks up the moment a playlist finishes.

Block Apple Music

Half of what starts it isn't the app icon — it's a voice command or a CarPlay screen.

Block SoundCloud

Reposts and timestamped comments turn a music app into something closer to a social feed.

An unused monthly credit feels like it's about to go to waste.

New episodes arrive on their own schedule, and the unplayed count only ever climbs.