your time is
worth earning back.

how it started

walk down any street and count the heads that are up. it won't take long. it's a very polite zombie film: everyone shuffling along, lit from below.

so we blocked the apps. it worked, for a while. then we waited the blocks out, or uninstalled them. phones were the boss level.

ditchd is the one we wanted and couldn't find: built to be near-impossible to bypass, by people who are annoyingly good at bypassing things.

why it works

most blockers you either get round or get used to. ditchd keeps moving: prices rise the more you use, the free minutes shrink every week and the year keeps going back, so the friction never fades into the background.

and it asks for effort first. bank it as dinos, spend it later: push-ups at home, a bit of scrolling on the train.

the real goal is a phone you don't think about much, and the hours back it was quietly eating: the walk, the book, the people across the table. if ditchd works, you'll need your phone less and less. ditchd included.

how it's made

• independent. no investors. nobody to answer to but the people using it.
• paid for by the people who use it. no ads and no data sold, ever.
• private by default. your screen, the camera and your app use stay on your phone.
• for every body. wheelchair, low-impact and no-movement options.

the ideas behind it

a lot of ditchd comes from dopamine nation by dr anna lembke: easy pleasure on tap lowers your baseline, barriers help, and effort pays off slower but longer. she hasn't endorsed ditchd. we just read the book.

and an older idea: your brain was tuned for foraging and the odd sabre-toothed tiger, then handed a feed that never ends. ditchd puts the effort back, and digby keeps count.

try it

ditchd is coming soon to google play, for android 8 and newer.ditchd is on google play for android 8 and newer, free for 14 days. there's a computer app for linux and windows too.

say hello

ideas, bugs, a way round it, or just how it's going: hello@ditchd.app.