Backstory: About one month ago while visiting us from overseas, my wife’s parents were in a terrible car accident. Everyone involved is alive and going to be okay. But what followed was a series of emotional, physical and logistical challenges that pushed my wife and her family to their limits.
For the first week we were practically glued to our phones, contacting family members, insurance companies and air ambulance services. I found myself obsessively checking my phone for updates, sending empty messages and mindlessly scrolling feeds. My screen time reached all time highs. I was spending 12 of my 16 waking hours staring at a screen instead of being there for my wife and her parents. It felt like I was hiding on my phone.
I don’t have a particularly addictive personality, but I am undeniably addicted to my phone. And this was the week I finally needed to deal with it.
I tried Apple Screen Time and a few popular screen time management apps, but found the blocks were too easy to bypass. I also realised that most apps (e.g. YouTube) were as useful as they were distracting depending on the context. I didn’t necessarily want to use my phone less: it’s an incredibly useful tool, and the distractions were sometimes helpful.
What I really needed was intentional stretches of time spent away from my phone. I built touchgrass.fm as a simple way to record and incentivize those stretches of time. It’s not quite finished (built in a few hours of downtime), but it helped me stay present during hospital visits, meals and important conversations.
I decided to share it on the off chance it helps others get some control back and be a bit more present in their day to day lives!
Thanks for sharing, I will give this a try today. What is the rationale for requiring the app to be open and leaving the screen on (draining battery)? Was this a technical limitation?
softservo · 12h ago
Thank you, feedback greatly appreciated !!
I tried a few different implementations (e.g. using background video/audio), but ultimately the device’s unpredictable management of background apps made it impossible to distinguish between navigating away from the app and locking the phone. I ended up going with the “dumb” solution.
It actually works quite nicely (especially as a PWA on iOS) because it makes the stretch feel more intentional, and it discourages “gaming” the system by recording long stretches while sleeping.
I’ve found the battery drain is also pretty negligible over 2-3 hour stretches, the dark screen / pixels seem to help a lot.
For the first week we were practically glued to our phones, contacting family members, insurance companies and air ambulance services. I found myself obsessively checking my phone for updates, sending empty messages and mindlessly scrolling feeds. My screen time reached all time highs. I was spending 12 of my 16 waking hours staring at a screen instead of being there for my wife and her parents. It felt like I was hiding on my phone.
I don’t have a particularly addictive personality, but I am undeniably addicted to my phone. And this was the week I finally needed to deal with it.
I tried Apple Screen Time and a few popular screen time management apps, but found the blocks were too easy to bypass. I also realised that most apps (e.g. YouTube) were as useful as they were distracting depending on the context. I didn’t necessarily want to use my phone less: it’s an incredibly useful tool, and the distractions were sometimes helpful.
What I really needed was intentional stretches of time spent away from my phone. I built touchgrass.fm as a simple way to record and incentivize those stretches of time. It’s not quite finished (built in a few hours of downtime), but it helped me stay present during hospital visits, meals and important conversations.
I decided to share it on the off chance it helps others get some control back and be a bit more present in their day to day lives!
Link: https://www.touchgrass.fm
What Are You Working On (June 2025): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44416093#44427955
I tried a few different implementations (e.g. using background video/audio), but ultimately the device’s unpredictable management of background apps made it impossible to distinguish between navigating away from the app and locking the phone. I ended up going with the “dumb” solution.
It actually works quite nicely (especially as a PWA on iOS) because it makes the stretch feel more intentional, and it discourages “gaming” the system by recording long stretches while sleeping.
I’ve found the battery drain is also pretty negligible over 2-3 hour stretches, the dark screen / pixels seem to help a lot.