I Have No Self Control
Start About 2 / 60 min

You said five more minutes. That was forty-five minutes ago.

This iPhone app puts a daily limit on the apps that pull you in, and a price on more time. Both set by you, earlier. When the limit comes, you decide whether it’s worth it.

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For iPhone with iOS 18 or later. 100 places in the beta.

The app’s Worth it? screen: Past you said no. Today’s 60 minutes are used. Wait 2 min for 10 more minutes.

Past you decides three things. Present you takes it or leaves it.

  1. The app’s Pools screen

    01

    Which apps pull you in

    Group them together: the feeds, the news, whatever keeps you scrolling. The app calls a group a Pool.

  2. The Pool editor with a daily budget of 60 minutes

    02

    How much of them a day

    One daily budget for the whole group, counted as time on screen. Roughly, never to the minute.

  3. The list of prices to choose from

    03

    What more time costs

    Something small and real, away from the screen. You pick the price and set the numbers.

What more time costs

Small on purpose.

Long enough for the pull to pass, short enough to bear. Every number is yours to set. Try it.

  • Wait. A clock that runs without you.

    2 min
    +10 min

  • Walk. Counted from the moment you choose it.

    500 steps
    +10 min

  • Go somewhere. Scan the code you stuck there.

    Kitchen
    +10 min

  • Use another app. The one you’d rather be in.

    10 min
    +10 min

  • Hop. Or jog on the spot, phone in hand.

    30 sec
    +10 min

  • Phone-free. A stretch without those apps.

    20 min
    +10 min

  • Vacuum. Your iPhone listens for it. Nothing is recorded.

    3 min
    +15 min

Examples. You set the task, the number and what it pays.

Later that evening

Past you said no.

The time you allowed is used up, and your iPhone draws a curtain over those apps. Present you can still have more. It costs whatever past you decided.

Waiting two minutes: 1:18 of 2:00 left
Walking: 312 of 500 steps
Going to the kitchen to scan the code there
Paying the price: a two-minute wait · 500 steps · the code in the kitchen

If it’s worth it

Ten minutes. At least.

Pay the price and the time is yours: at least ten more minutes for all the apps in that group, not just one. Use them or don’t. Whatever’s left is gone overnight.

Extra time · one Pool

+10 min of use

Doomscrolling · today only

Earned

If it isn’t

Not now is a whole answer.

The curtain has two buttons of the same size. Close it, and those apps stay shut until the day starts over during the night. No streak breaks, because there is no streak.

And if a limit turns out too strict, switch it off. It takes effect at once, and you don’t have to explain yourself.

One evening, twice.

A one-minute film: the same evening twice, first without the app, then with it. Sound on.

Play one round, right here.

The app’s own first run, in your browser: a pretend feed, the curtain, a price, a ticket. About a minute. Nothing you do leaves this page.

I HAVE NO SELF CONTROL

Present you is about to say no.

Future you will want more anyway. You set the price.

I’M THE APP. I TALK IN THIS BOX. NEVER FOR LONG.

No streaks. No scores. No coach.

It states facts and asks one question at the moment it matters. That’s the whole relationship.

  • No account, no sign-up.
  • What you do in it stays on your iPhone. It doesn’t even know which apps you picked.
  • No friends to compete with, no daily tips, no ads.
  • Nothing blinks, nothing nags.
Michael, who makes the app
Photo: Kristian Scheffler

Hi, I’m Michael. I have no self control.

The app’s name is a confession, not a diagnosis. The digital wellbeing tools I tried clearly weren’t made for my neurodivergent brain, and that brain isn’t going to change. So I built something that works with it.

The first evening I used it, the curtain came down on YouTube as well. I didn’t pay the price. I got up, tidied, and talked.

I’ve used it every evening since. I scroll a lot less than I used to, and the house is noticeably tidier.

That was the whole page.

Here too, the curtain comes down when the time is up. Two buttons of the same size, as promised.

Needs
An iPhone with iOS 18 or later.
Price
[NOT DECIDED YET]
Data
None collected. No account, no server.
News
No list, no newsletter. Updates come through TestFlight.
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