Brick Your iPhone on Purpose

I really dig the idea behind Brick, which I heard about via Kevin in the ShopTalk Discord #gear channel this morning.

• Install the Brick app on your iPhone.
• Select which apps you want it to block
• 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 do so you stop trying to access distracting apps on your iPhone.

I like that it's a nice hack on the built in Screen Time settings 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 $84CAD 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. Bonus: no ongoing subscription fees!

Other things to note from their FAQ:

• One Brick can be used by multiple iPhones. So for a family or 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, etc.
• There are five emergency "unbricks" included with each purchase so if you lose your Brick, you're not completely out of 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 spent 10 hours trying to get to the end of Reels or TikTok.