Brick - Ditch Distractions

Update: 05/17. They fixed the scheduling issues that were originally happening and it was going well for a couple of months. However, now the scheduling issues are back in full force. This time the brick won’t unbrick when it is scheduled to. Thankfully I haven’t been out of town or away from home when this has happened, but it’s highly unfortunate that this is happening again. This is the whole point of having the brick. To have something that automatically takes away some of the self control it takes to walk away from your phone or to not log into your apps. That’s why the schedules exist in the first place. The work around I have found if this happens to you is turning your phone on and off again if it has been bricked for longer than it was scheduled to. I have tried updating the times it is scheduled to brick like customer service recommended last time and that hasn’t worked. Deducting a star for so many inconsistencies and the main points of the app never working as intended. Original Review: The brick has really helped me with my doom scrolling. However, the scheduling portion of the app rarely works. I’ve reached out to support and they recommended to change the schedules and that engineers have an update coming in the new year to hopefully fix it. I’ve changed the schedules as instructed and still run into issues of it either not turning on brick mode when it’s set to or not blocking all the apps it’s supposed to. Hopefully they’re able to fix it, because it is a huge let down as I really rely on the schedules to help break my scrolling habits. Otherwise, it’s great and highly recommend.

I work from home as a creative, and it’s always a challenge to not sink into lost time with social media or games on the phone. I put my Brick in the drawer at the start of my workday – I paid extra for the little sticky holder, since I wanted it out of sight - and I have reclaimed a lot of of time that I put to creative use. Since the brick is in a drawer, I actually have to make a decision to open the drawer to unbrick. If I really have to post something for work on Instagram or Facebook, I can do that via my Meta management page and not start looking at phone videos. I think the physical nature of this app makes it far more effective. I tried Opal before and just found it annoying and intrusive and somewhat judgmental. The brick makes no judgment. It just blocks the unwanted phone apps and sits inside my drawer, doing its job. It helped me realize to how I get drawn into looking at videos. It’s usually a link from a news article. And then I get off task. So now I understand what takes me down that path in the first place. Excellent product and well worth the money. I am reclaiming time that I can use to make far more money than the Brick cost me.

I absolutely love this thing. It took me a while to actually pick this thing up. Because for some reason, I thought that I could use the native version of this app. That’s embed into the iPhone system. I think it’s called Tim or something like that. Anyway, Time allows you to unlock the app that you were trying to get into, so for example, if I wanted to get into Facebook and I had a bad habit. I’m just getting into it and unlocking it directly. Then it would just defeat the purpose, and it wouldn’t become a distraction. My office is upstairs, and the brick is actually on my fridge. And even though it is accessible, I find myself focusing more on the work at hand and not being so easily distracted. And it’s not just work. It’s also focusing on my family and focusing on my marriage. I find myself picking up the phone to check my apps that are locked about 100 times a day. It seems like. But with this Brick, I am Brick on average 10 to 12 hours a day, which is kind of liberating because I have my phone and can receive messages and phone calls without the distractions of all the other applications on my phone. Highly recommend to anyone wanting to increase their focus on. Not Rochester work, but every area of their life.