The problem with "read more" as a goal
Reading loses to scrolling for a boring mechanical reason: the feed pays out instantly and the book pays out in a month. Every evening your brain picks between a slot machine and a savings account, and it picks the slot machine, because you would too.
Most fixes attack the wrong end. Book clubs, reading goals, "phone in the other room": all trying to make reading more attractive or scrolling less available. The leverage is in connecting them, so the thing you crave pays for the thing you want to want.
The setup
Broc is a habit-based app blocker: block distracting apps, do a real habit, prove it with a photo, earn the unlock. The reading version:
Create the habit: read 10 pages
Ten is deliberate. Small enough to clear on your worst day, big enough to finish a book a month. Raise it later if the streak holds.
Block what you'd scroll instead
Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. From now on, opening them shows the habit list, and the habit list says "read 10 pages".
Use per-habit unlock mode
Each completed habit earns a chunk of screen time. Pages in, minutes out. When the window ends, the block returns, and so does the book.
Optional: photo proof (Pro)
AI photo verification wants to see the open book or the e-reader page before the habit counts. For the people (all of us) who would eventually just tap the box.
Why the exchange rate sticks
Two feedback loops start running. The obvious one: you read every day, because that's the only door to the feed, and ten daily pages quietly becomes twelve books a year. The sneakier one: the scroll window is finite now, so you stop opening Instagram out of boredom and start spending it like money. Both loops show up in your streak, and a 20-day streak is a possession you won't break for one lazy evening.
The craving never goes away. It does your reading now.
Common questions
Does it work with Kindle or audiobooks?
The habit is whatever you define: paper pages, Kindle pages, a chapter of an audiobook on a walk. Broc checks the habit, not the format. With photo verification, point the camera at whatever shows the work.
What if I genuinely need an app that's blocked?
Then do the ten pages. That's the deal you made with yourself when you set it up, and the app holding you to it is the product working.
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, on Google Play. iOS email signup is on the homepage.
Make Instagram cost 10 pages.
Get Broc on Google Play