Why "I'll just delete it before exams" never sticks
Deleting the app feels decisive. It's also completely free to undo: reinstalling takes under a minute, nobody sees it, and the algorithm remembers you fondly. So the decision gets remade every single time willpower dips, and exam season is one long willpower dip.
Screen-time limits have the same hole. Android lets you delete an app timer in Settings before midnight, and Focus mode offers a temporary break. The person who set the rule can waive it for free. That's a suggestion, not a gate.
The setup (about 3 minutes)
Broc is a habit-based app blocker: block distracting apps, do a real habit, prove it with a photo, earn the unlock. For studying it looks like this:
Add a study habit
Make it concrete and finishable: "45 minutes of past papers", "one lecture summarised", "20 flashcards". Not "study more".
Block the apps that eat your sessions
TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, games. You pick the list. Opening any of them now shows your habit list instead of the feed.
Pick your unlock mode
Per habit: each finished habit earns a chunk of screen time (a study block earns a scroll break). All habits first: nothing opens until the whole list is cleared. Exam-week mode, basically.
Optional: make it cheat-proof
AI photo verification wants a photo of the work (your notes, the flashcards, the desk) before the habit counts. No ticking the box from bed.
Why this works when timers don't
A timer measures time in the app. It has no idea whether you studied. Flipping it around, so the scroll is the reward for the work, does two things at once: the distraction stops competing with the studying, and the studying gets a payoff today instead of in June. The craving for a break doesn't go away. It starts working for you.
Streaks do the long-term part. Every day the habits get done, the streak grows, and day 23 of a streak is genuinely hard to throw away over one scroll.
Common questions
Can't I just uninstall Broc mid-session?
Yes, and Broc doesn't pretend otherwise. But uninstalling a blocker you set up yourself is a real decision that kills a visible streak, while editing a timer was a reflex. Making the lazy path embarrassing is the whole mechanism.
Does it work for YouTube brain-rot too?
The block list is yours: any app on the phone. YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, games.
What does it cost?
Broc is a subscription with a 7-day free trial. One plan, everything in: unlimited habits, custom unlock durations, AI photo verification and full history. No ads.
iPhone?
Android only for now. Leave your email on the homepage and you'll hear when iOS lands.
Block the feed. Do the work. Earn the break.
Get Broc on Google Play