How to stop doomscrolling
Nobody decides to spend ninety minutes reading bad news in bed. It happens because the decision was never made in the first place.
Interrupt the reflex rather than trying to resist it. Block the feeds during your worst hours, put a short delay on unblocking, and give the reaching hand something else to land on. The delay matters more than the intention.
How to do it
Find the two hours that actually go
It is almost always right after waking and right before sleep. Check your screen-time report rather than guessing.
Block the feeds in those windows
Not the whole internet, and not forever. Just the specific feeds, during the specific hours you lose.
Put a short delay on unblocking
Fifteen minutes. The reach is automatic rather than desperate, and automatic behaviour does not survive a wait.
Move the phone out of the bedroom
A blocker helps at the moment of reaching. Distance removes the reaching. Use both.
Expect the first week to feel odd
You will reach for something that is not there, repeatedly. That is the habit, not a problem with the plan.
Why it is a loop rather than a choice
The pattern is cue, action, reward, repeated until it is automatic. The cue is usually a feeling: boredom, anxiety, avoidance of something you should be doing. The action takes no thought at all, which is what makes it so hard to notice let alone stop.
You cannot out-decide something that never involved a decision. What works is making the automatic action unavailable, so the loop has to break somewhere.
Why deleting the app fails
It works for about four days. Then a mildly bad evening arrives, reinstalling takes fifteen seconds, and you are back with the added feeling of having failed at something.
A block is different because the obstacle outlasts your resolve. That is not a moral distinction, it is a practical one.
The news is a special case
Staying informed is a reasonable thing to want, and it is also the most common justification for a habit that has nothing to do with being informed.
A useful test: reading the news once, deliberately, at a set time is being informed. Refreshing it is not. Schedule the first and block the second.
Common questions
Is doomscrolling actually harmful?
What should I do instead?
Related guides
Calmer water is one decision away.
Kellet blocks the distractions you choose and lets you stay accountable to yourself, or to someone you trust.