Opal

“Be off your phone babes xoxo”

“Losing hours (days/years) of your life to corporations who spend billions to retain your attention is not an individual failure. You cannot compete with their massive machine. I’ve set up Opal to allow me two 15-20 min bursts each day of Instagram and - crucially - the news! I had locked socials then realised I was punctuating my day with looking at news. I blocked all the news sites I tended to look at. Proof is in the pudding: I’ve written a novella and the first draft of a novel this year, as well as a bunch of other stuff. My time to look is 9.30am (by then I’m usually too into my day to even care) and 7.30pm (after dinner, a little treat). When you are setting it up, it makes it seem like you have to pay, but you don’t. I just use the free version. Paid gives you access to more harsh restrictions that I don’t (as yet) need.”