Swore I'd never use a phone lock box, then tried one for 10 days and I'm not going back

Riley Lewis · 2026-09-12T07:10:03.789395+00:00

I always figured screen time limits were enough for me, so for about a year my whole setup was just timers on the worst apps and I felt pretty smug about it. Then in March my sister handed me one of those cheap timer lock boxes, the kind you shut your phone inside and it won't pop open till the clock runs out. I told her she was being dramatic, but I tried it for 10 days anyway, an hour at dinner and two hours before bed. The first night I sat there with my hands kind of twitching toward an empty table, which was embarrassing to notice about myself. By day 4 I was reading actual books again, like 60 pages in one sitting, something I had not done since probably 2022. The thing that convinced me was a plain fact: a timer just asks me to be good, and the box does not care how I feel. Now I keep it in a drawer and use it most nights, and my screen time report dropped from 5 hours to under 2 on weekdays. Has anyone else tried a lock box, and did the first few days feel that weird for you too?

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Swore I'd never use a phone lock box, then tried one for 10 days and I'm not going back | Block It Out - The Community Guide