[palindrome818]

I liked rule 6 "treat your phone like a book". One thing I did recently was remove the news stories from my google home page. I'd go to search something and then get caught up in some horrific news story. Any advice for people using dating apps? How do you make sure you're using the dating app and not the other way around?

[thr0wawayf00]

I've had a really hard time finding a balance with dating apps, they're easily my most addictive phone habit. I recently hard-deleted all of my dating app accounts to take an extended break.

Before that, I tried several different things to modify my dating app behavior:

I would set Screen Time in iOS and give myself a one hour limit per day with a separate Screen Time password. This worked OK but it was still too easy to keep requesting 15 more minutes at a time. To deal with this, I would delete the app from my phone when I reached my time limit since they're way too easy to access from the iOS app tray and the app icon is a major trigger for me.

The major thing that helped was setting a month-on month-off schedule. I would pay for a premium account for one month only and cancel the subscription right after purchase and get to inbox zero on my app when it was time to turn the app off.

At the end of the month on, I would put my profile into hidden mode so I know that I won't get new matches in my month off, and I would also delete all stale matches. I would keep all active matches and just talk to them until we either met or went silent and then I would delete them. Keeping my inbox as clean as possible really reduced temptation.

[vitabenes]

I don't have any piece of advice specific to dating apps. A good general thing is to put a Screen Time/Digital Wellbeing widget on your homescreen, so that you see how much time you spend in a particular app. If you get over 1h / day and it's not for stuff like business or personal communication, then it might be time for a reset (removing the app for a few days, logging out of it, setting limits).

[elviejo]

Suggestions for such an app?

[vitabenes]

I meant the Screen Time feature of iOS, and Digital Wellbeing app, which is made by Google. Both enable you to put a widget with the app/time breakdown right on your home screen. Some older versions of iOS or Android might not support it, though.