I do, however, sometimes wish I did not lose so many hours to Twitter, and so long as its servers remain operational, my only option is to take matters into my own hands. After that, your goodies are locked inside for the duration, baring the extreme measure of breaking open the thick-unibody plastic case, in which case the KSafe’s documentation states that its help line will provide guidance as to how to accomplish this most effectively, but it goes without saying you don’t want to resort to this embarrassing and expensive solution if you can avoid it. The complications so far have been fairly small and sometimes even fun: like listening to whatever was last queued up on the Sonos because, welp, all I can do is hit the on-speaker play button! Whatever I wind up doing, it’s improved by a freedom from choice — I don’t have to spend the entire time choosing not to look at my phone for an countless moments at a stretch.

Once you’re done, tap the button and a five second countdown — your last chance to abort with a quick second tap — begins. I’d expected the primary pain point would be that I’m a big whiney baby who throws a tantrum without his glow-screen. Even if I come up with what I deem to be an acceptable excuse to renege on my commitment, tough luck buddy!Just take your temptation, throw it in the bin, and use the rotating dial on top to set yourself a lockout time from a single minute to 9 days 23 hours and 59 minutes. Social media is a societally-mandated Skinner Box and I did not choose to have a positive physiological reaction to dopamine.

Originally designed for locking up sweets (the “K” stands for “Kitchen”), the KSafe is also great for locking up your phone, which I have gotten in the habit of doing a few times a week. Gear Patrol participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. The Ksafe is a wonderful device you should maybe hope to not need to use, but which will come in handy if you do need it. The endeavor so far has left me less sure than ever that the screentime problem is something that any one app, gadget, or Rube Goldberg machine can solve for me or anyone else.The only reason I even get to look away is because I have a laptop, a tablet, and a phone-toting spouse to help me fill in the gaps. So I’ve been surprised that in fact the opposite is the case: I actually love being forcibly phoneless for an hour or two in the evenings or on the weekend.