Unhooked

The 30-Day Plan to Break Your Phone Habit, Stop Doomscrolling and Get Your Focus Back

Take back your attention in 30 days with one simple task a day, no willpower marathons required.

$9.99

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What you get

A 20-minute screen-time audit worksheet that rates every app by value and regret
Step-by-step iPhone and Android setup: grayscale, notification triage, home screen, limits, Focus and Digital Wellbeing
A word-for-word urge-surfing script and a 10-minute delay trick for strong cravings
Environment design for bedroom, kitchen, desk and car, including the phone-outside-the-bedroom setup
Social media and news rules that stop doomscrolling without quitting everything
Work focus blocks, email windows and a copy-ready script to ask your manager for focus time
A printable Family Media Agreement plus etiquette scripts for couples and friends
A 30-day plan with one task per day, a daily tracker, a relapse plan and a 90-day maintenance plan

You pick up your phone to check the weather and resurface 20 minutes later, still not sure if you need a jacket. That is not a willpower problem. Apps are built with variable rewards, infinite feeds and nonstop notifications, and one tired person is no match for that design. Unhooked gives you a better plan than "just use it less."

This is a practical, no-guilt guide to changing the phone, the rooms you live in and the moments that pull you in. You start with a 20-minute screen-time audit that shows exactly which apps cost you the most. Then you rebuild your iPhone or Android step by step: grayscale with a quick toggle, a three-bucket notification triage, a calm one-page home screen, app limits, and Focus modes or Digital Wellbeing.

From there you redesign your environment (the phone sleeps outside the bedroom, an alarm clock takes its place), build replacement habits that actually feel good, and learn a word-for-word urge-surfing script for the moments the pull is strongest. You get rules for social media and news without the spiral, a focus-block system for work with email windows and scripts for your manager, a printable family media agreement, and phone etiquette scripts for couples and friends.

Everything comes together in a 30-day plan with one clear task per day and a daily tracker, a relapse plan that gets you back on track in 24 hours, and a 90-day maintenance plan. No invented statistics, no lectures. Just a phone that works for you again.

What's inside

Start Here: You Are Not Weak, Your Phone Is Built This Way
The Slot Machine in Your Pocket: Why Apps Are So Hard to Put Down
The Screen-Time Audit: Find Out Where Your Hours Really Go
Rebuild Your iPhone in One Evening: Grayscale, Notifications, Home Screen, Limits and Focus
Rebuild Your Android Phone in One Evening: Grayscale, Notifications, Home Screen, Timers and Digital Wellbeing
Make Your Home Work Against the Scroll: Bedroom, Kitchen, Desk and Car
Fill the Gap: Replacement Habits That Actually Feel Good
Boredom, Urges and the Wave: How to Ride Out the Pull Without Picking Up the Phone
Social Media Without the Spiral: Rules for Using It on Purpose
Get Your Brain Back at Work: Focus Blocks, Email Windows and Meeting Rules
Family Rules That Stick: Kids, Teens and a Family Media Agreement You Can Print
Phones and People: Etiquette for Couples, Friends, Dinners and Conversations
When You Slip: A Relapse Plan That Gets You Back on Track in One Day
The 30-Day Plan: One Task a Day, From Audit to Unhooked
Staying Unhooked: Your 90-Day Maintenance Plan and Next Steps

Read a sample

Here is the single most important idea in this book. When a reward is predictable , we get bored of it. When a reward is unpredictable , we keep checking. That is the core of how a slot machine works: most pulls give you nothing, some give you a little, and once in a while you hit something great. You never know which pull it will be, so you keep pulling. Now look at your phone. Pull down to refresh your email. Usually nothing. Sometimes a boring receipt. Once in a while, the message you were hoping for. Open a social app. Most posts are filler, but every so often there is something hilarious, shocking or flattering. Check your likes. Some days five, some days fifty. The pull-to-refresh gesture even feels like a lever. That is not a coincidence you need to prove; you can feel it in your thumb. Try this now Next time you pull to refresh anything, say quietly, "pulling the lever." It sounds silly. It works. Naming the pattern breaks the trance for a second, and a second is all you need to make a choice. Trick 2: The infinite feed Old media had stopping points. A newspaper ended.