How to Stop Doomscrolling: A 5-Step Plan That Works

This guide walks through a five-step plan you can do with nothing but your phone’s settings, then shows where an app can help.

Why is it so hard to stop in the first place?

Feeds are built without stopping points. There is no last page, and what comes next is always a surprise. Surprise matters: Schultz, Dayan, and Montague (1997) described how dopamine-related neurons respond to prediction errors, the gap between what you expected and what you got. Berridge and Robinson (1998) argued that dopamine is tied to wanting and motivation more than to enjoyment itself. Put loosely, the next swipe might be great, and that pull to find out can keep going even when you are not enjoying yourself. We unpack this in Why You Can’t Stop Scrolling.

Then habit takes over. Wood and Neal (2007) described how repeated behavior in a stable context becomes linked to that context, so the cue starts the behavior with little deliberate thought. Phone on the couch, a lull in conversation, a stressful email: the thumb is already moving. That is why the plan below starts with cues, not with willpower.

Step 1: Find and change your cues

For three days, notice what happens right before you open the app. You don’t need a spreadsheet. A note on your phone works: time, place, feeling.

Common patterns include:

• First thing after waking up
• Waiting (in line, for the microwave, for a text)
• Boredom or a gap between tasks
• Stress or avoiding something hard
• The couch, the bed, the bathroom

Once you know your top two or three, change the setting. Move the phone out of the bedroom. Leave it in another room while you work. Take the social apps off your home screen. You are not removing the habit yet, only removing the nudge that starts it.

Step 2: Add friction

Every extra step between you and the feed gives your slower, more deliberate self a chance to speak up. Try these in order of effort:

1. Turn off notifications for anything that is not a person messaging you.
2. Log out of the app after each session, so opening it means typing a password.
3. Use your phone’s built-in Screen Time limits, and set the passcode to something a friend knows.
4. Switch the screen to grayscale.
5. Delete the app and use the browser version, which is clumsier on purpose.

A caution: a limit that you can dismiss with one tap tends to fail at the moment you need it. We cover why in Why Screen Time Limits Fail. Friction you can’t instantly wave off holds up better.

Step 3: Replace, don’t just remove

If you take scrolling away and leave a hole, the cue will fill it again. Pick a replacement that fits the same moment and uses your hands:

• On the couch: a paperback within reach, or a puzzle book.
• Waiting around: a short podcast or a stretch.
• Stressed: a five-minute walk, or ten squats.
• Bored at your desk: stand up, drink water, look out a window.

Milkman, Minson, and Volpp (2014) tested “temptation bundling,” pairing something you want (in their study, gripping audiobooks) with something that is good for you (the gym), and found that people who had that pairing went to the gym more. The same idea works in reverse here: make the better thing the way to get the tempting thing. You can read more in Exercise vs. Scrolling for Mood.

Step 4: Precommit

Decide in the morning, not at 9:40 p.m. Ariely and Wertenbroch (2002) found that people who set their own binding deadlines performed better than those with none, even though self-imposed deadlines were not as effective as optimal ones set by someone else. Binding yourself in advance helps because your future self will be tired and tempted.

Turn the decision into a rule. Gollwitzer (1999) reviewed research on implementation intentions, simple “if X, then Y” plans, and found they can have strong effects on following through. Examples:

• “If I sit on the couch after dinner, then the phone goes on the charger in the kitchen.”
• “If I catch myself reaching for the app while waiting, then I take three slow breaths and look around.”
• “If I open a news app after 8 p.m., then I close it and read one page of my book.”

Write two or three of these on a sticky note. Specific beats ambitious.

Step 5: Protect bedtime

Late-night scrolling is the most expensive kind, because it bleeds into sleep. Pick a fixed phone curfew, charge the phone across the room, and buy a cheap alarm clock if the phone is your alarm. Chang and colleagues (2015) found in a small lab study that evening reading on a light-emitting device delayed melatonin and left people less alert the next morning compared with a printed book. We go deeper in Doomscrolling Before Bed.

Where an app can help

The weak point of every DIY plan is the moment you decide to override it. An app that holds the lock for you can cover that moment. Here is what Doomreps is designed to do:

| Situation | How Doomreps handles it | | — | — | | Apps you choose lock using Apple Screen Time | You pick which ones | | You want to open one | Spend minutes you have earned or your free daily allowance | | At home | Camera-tracked push-ups or squats, flying a pixel bird (a score of 5 or more earns minutes) | | Out or at the gym | Steps (5 minutes per 1,000) and Apple Health workouts (1 minute per 2 minutes), up to 45 minutes a day | | Your strictness | Strict (0), Balanced (15), or Gentle (30) free minutes a day | | Bad day | Borrow 15 minutes when you can’t do reps, plus 3 emergency unlocks a week | | When it locks | Everywhere, only at home, or on a schedule |

After you spend minutes, the apps lock again, which puts a stopping point back into the feed. The free plan locks one app and Pro locks all of them, so start with your worst one. See the full idea in Earn Your Screen Time With Exercise, or try it from the home page.

An app is a tool, not a cure. If the DIY steps above already work for you, you don’t need it.

What if you slip?

You will. Lally and colleagues (2010) studied habit formation outside the lab and found that missing a single opportunity did not seem to derail the process, and that the time it took to feel automatic varied widely between people. So treat a slip as information. Which cue was it? Add friction there. For a broader overview, read How to Break the Phone Habit.

A simple way to start today

1. Turn off all non-person notifications.
2. Charge your phone outside the bedroom tonight.
3. Write one “if, then” rule for your worst scrolling moment.
4. Put a replacement within reach of that spot.

That is enough for a first week. Add the rest once those feel normal.

Sources

• Schultz, W., Dayan, P., & Montague, P. R. (1997). A neural substrate of prediction and reward. Science, 275(5306), 1593–1599. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.275.5306.1593
• Berridge, K. C., & Robinson, T. E. (1998). What is the role of dopamine in reward: hedonic impact, reward learning, or incentive salience? Brain Research Reviews, 28(3), 309–369.
• Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2007). A new look at habits and the habit–goal interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863.
• Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503.
• Ariely, D., & Wertenbroch, K. (2002). Procrastination, deadlines, and performance: Self-control by precommitment. Psychological Science, 13(3), 219–224.
• Milkman, K. L., Minson, J. A., & Volpp, K. G. M. (2014). Holding the Hunger Games hostage at the gym: An evaluation of temptation bundling. Management Science, 60(2), 283–299.
• Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., & Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674
• Chang, A.-M., Aeschbach, D., Duffy, J. F., & Czeisler, C. A. (2015). Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness. PNAS, 112(4), 1232–1237. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1418490112

This article is for general information and isn’t medical advice. If phone use is seriously affecting your life or mood, talk to a doctor or mental health professional.