I may have realized why most screen time apps never worked for me

I've tried basically every screen time trick over the years: blockers, app limits, uninstalling apps, all of it.. and honestly most of them worked for like 3 days before my brain found a way around them. While building Mindful Scroll I noticed something that kind of changed how I think about the whole problem though and that made me pivot from usage tracking to something else...

The issue for me wasn't really "too much time on Instagram or Reddit", it was the fact I was opening apps without even realizing I made the decision.

Like, I unlock my phone to check something small and suddenly I'm already on Reddit scrolling. So instead of focusing on limiting usage, I tried focusing only on that first automatic open.

The app basically just adds a short pause before social apps open for the first time each day, weirdly that tiny interruption helped me more than all the strict blocker stuff ever did.

Also started tracking things like:

• How often I back out after the pause?
• How fast I leave after opening?
• Which apps trigger the most autopilot opens?

And those numbers honestly feel more useful than the usual "You spent X hours today".

Still early, but it's been interesting seeing how small behavior changes matter way more than I expected.

If anyone wants to check it out:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haikyu.mindfulscroll