Forge - A self discovery

Forge blocks apps on your phone for stretches of time you choose. The only way to get your phone back early is to do the work you planned.

THE PROBLEM

A blocked phone gives you an empty hour. It doesn't give you a finished one. Most blockers stop there, so you sit through the hour, get nothing done, and eventually turn the blocker off. A to-do list has the opposite problem: it holds everything you intend and nothing that makes any of it start.

HOW IT WORKS

Block your phone. Set recurring stretches of the day, or start one right now for as long as you like. Each block has its own list of what it shuts out — whole categories, or individual apps.

Say what done looks like. Before a session starts you write three versions: the least that would still count, a good result, and more than you expected. The smallest one exists so there is always a version you could manage on a bad day.

Work. While you are in a session the block's countdown runs 1.5x faster so working is genuinely the quicker way out. Both clocks are on screen at once.

Report and reflect. You say how it went, then spend a minute on what got done, what fought back, and what you will want to know next time. You can read all of it back later.

EARNING YOUR PHONE BACK

Five minutes of focus earns one minute of phone time. It is only earned inside a session, it is deliberately stingy, and it expires at midnight. There is no other way to get it.

STRICT, IF YOU WANT IT

Any block can be marked strict. While it runs you cannot release it, edit it, delete it, or uninstall Forge. You can always lift everything by turning off Forge's access in Settings > Screen Time, and the app tells you so.

Discovery signals