App Blocking Rules: Set Custom Delays and Block Durations

How Custom App Blocking Rules Work

A rule in Upchin is not a page of settings. It is two numbers:

• the delay before block — how long you can use a blocked app before anything happens;
• the block duration — how long it then stays closed.

Give that pair a name and you have a rule. One rule is active at a time, and switching between them is one tap.

That is the whole model. It is small on purpose: a rule you can describe in one sentence is a rule you will actually understand three weeks later, when you wonder why your phone just did something.

Quick Friction: 60-Second Delay, 30-Second Block

Sixty seconds of delay, thirty seconds of block. This is the recommended rule and the one to start with.

A minute is long enough to open a message and get out. It is short enough that aimless scrolling reaches the wall quickly. And thirty seconds of block is not a punishment — it is the length of an impulse.

If you are not sure what to choose, this is the answer. Most people never change it.

Pomodoro: Five-Minute Delay, 25-Minute Block

Five minutes of delay, twenty-five minutes of block. A different shape of day entirely: deliberate work rather than ambient interruption.

Pomodoro comes pre-installed and is fixed — it cannot be renamed, edited or deleted. You can switch it on and off freely, but its two numbers stay where they are. A Pomodoro that had been quietly edited to four minutes would still be called Pomodoro, and would no longer be one.

⚠️ One consequence worth knowing before you turn it on: the delay runs in clock time. Open a blocked app for twenty seconds, put the phone down, and the block still arrives about five minutes later. With Quick friction you never notice this. With Pomodoro you will.

Create Your Own Delays and Block Durations

Beyond the two presets you can create as many rules as you like, each with its own pair of numbers. Ninety seconds then two minutes. Ten seconds then a minute. Whatever matches the way a particular stretch of your life actually goes.

The block duration has a floor of thirty seconds. Below that it is not a pause, it is a flicker — and a flicker trains you to tap through rather than to stop.

What Rules Are Not

They are not schedules. A rule says how the block behaves, never when. The when belongs to Schedule.

They are not per-app. The active rule applies to everything in your selection. There is no way to give one app a gentler rule than another.

They do not stack. One rule is active; changing rules changes behaviour from that moment, not retroactively.

They are not a difficulty setting. A longer block is not a stronger commitment — it is a longer wait, and a wait you resent is a wait you work around. The useful rule is the one you stop noticing.