#Selfcontrol doesnt block youtube for android

Come evening, another Focus mode timer kicked in and I was blocked from using Slack or Twitter when I was supposed to be decompressing from work and enjoying time with my family. On Monday morning, the Focus mode schedule expired and I was able to resume accessing Slack and Twitter on my phone, as they are crucial tools during my workday. After a few hours of digital scolding, I even stopped reactively opening Twitter every time I unlocked my phone, and either found something else to do or just used my phone for what I needed to do - and moved on, without getting engrossed in social media feeds or work stuff. Last weekend, I was able to keep myself out of Slack and Twitter for the entire weekend thanks to ActionDash smacking my hand each time I tried to open the app.

But I’ve found it most beneficial in helping keep me off the clock in the hours that I’m not supposed to be working. This new Focus mode scheduling can also be used during the workday to block distracting apps such as Instagram or Twitter. It’s just enough friction to prevent me from casually disabling the block when I’m bored. If I want to override the block, I have to go into ActionDash’s settings and disable it, after waiting 15 seconds for a timer to expire. Should I try to open an app that’s being blocked, ActionDash will display a graph of how much time has been spent in the app over the past week and let me know when the current block timer expires (at which point I can resume using the app). If I’m also using Action Launcher, the app icons will be grayed out on my home screen, giving me another visual indicator the app is being blocked before I even attempt to open it. With the latest version of ActionDash, I can set specific time blocks for when the phone will prevent me from launching or using apps that I specify.

#Selfcontrol doesnt block youtube for android

Sure, they let me set a timer for how long I’m allowed to use Slack or Twitter on a given day, but what if I don’t want to be allowed to use it at all on the weekends? The same goes for other methods, like deleting the apps every weekend and reinstalling them on Monday, which presents their own annoyances and headaches.ĪctionDash’s new Focus mode scheduler does things Google’s own Focus mode doesn’t yetĪctionDash, an app for Android phones that brings Google’s Digital Wellbeing features to older phones and builds on top of them for phones that already have Digital Wellbeing, is launching a new feature that is designed to specifically address these problems.

Apple and Google’s various screen-time-limiting functions haven’t helped, either. It’s all too easy to just idly open Twitter or Slack on a Saturday while I’m standing in line to pay for groceries or waiting for my kid to finish brushing their teeth, and then get sucked into a vortex of work-related activities. Managing that dual-purposeness of my phone has always been a challenge. It’s also crucial to how I perform my job, by letting me keep on top of the never-ending news cycle and communicate with my co-workers and other contacts through Slack and email. It’s how I communicate with friends and family it’s how I experience entertainment it’s how I navigate around a city it’s how I purchase my morning coffee it’s how I control countless smart home devices and so on and so forth. Like many modern information workers, my personal phone serves many purposes.