Minecraft is worth treating differently from most of this list, because its pull doesn't come from notifications, algorithms, or anything designed to interrupt you and pull you back. It has no feed, no live events pressuring you to log in now, no gifting economy. What it has instead is open-ended building with no built-in stopping point, and a specific, absorbing kind of focus that makes walking away feel like abandoning something, not like missing out on something.
What actually makes Minecraft hard to close
Creative and survival building both reward exactly the kind of deep, absorbed concentration psychologists call flow — time distorts, and "just five more minutes to finish this" is a genuinely honest assessment in the moment, even when it turns out to be two hours. A build in progress creates its own momentum: unlike a match that ends on a fixed schedule, a construction project can always be "almost done," and stopping partway through often feels like it would waste the mental model of the whole structure you've been holding in your head. Persistent multiplayer worlds add a different pull on top — a server keeps existing and evolving whether you're logged in or not, and other players building or changing things in your absence creates a mild fear of missing out that has nothing to do with any single session's content.
The built-in iPhone route, and where it gives way
An iOS Screen Time App Limit on Minecraft works the same as on any app: a warning, a lock screen, one "Ignore Limit for Today" button that clears it in a tap, needing only a Screen Time passcode you set and know yourself. A limit that lands mid-build is a limit that interrupts a mental model you've been holding together for the last hour, which makes overriding it feel less like breaking a rule and more like finishing a thought before it's lost.
The built-in Android route, and where it gives way
Digital Wellbeing's App Timer greys out Minecraft's icon at your limit and offers more time the moment you tap it, adjustable or removable from Settings at any time. Same gap as iPhone: the timer has no concept of "almost done with this build," and a project interrupted mid-thought is exactly the kind of thing that gets a limit overridden without much resistance.
What changes when the toll is three questions
Mr. Grummel's toll sits in front of opening Minecraft, before flow state has had the chance to take hold. The three questions cost a few minutes of genuine thought, and that's specifically useful here because flow, once it starts, is very hard to interrupt cleanly from the inside — the few minutes work best spent before a session begins, deciding honestly how long "a bit of building" is actually going to take tonight, rather than trying to talk your way out of a build you're already three hours into.
A realistic day
Right now: "a bit of building before bed" turns into finishing at 1am, because nothing about the process itself offered a natural stopping point once the flow state kicked in. With the toll in place: opening Minecraft runs into three questions first. Real building time still happens — the toll was never trying to make the game less enjoyable. What changes is that the decision about how long tonight's session should be gets made once, honestly, before flow state takes that decision out of your hands.