Which block to use: Zen, a schedule, a limit or Always blocked

Start with the last time you wished you hadn’t picked up your phone. Note the hour, the app and how long you stayed. The answer usually points to one kind of block.

Offhours is still being built, and its blocks have not yet been verified on a physical iPhone. This advice is based on how they are designed to work.

Zen

Use Zen for something in front of you now. You have sat down to write a report, or you have a train ride and a book. Choose the apps and a length from 10 minutes to 7 days, and they are blocked from the moment you start.

Zen also suits a stretch that won’t repeat, such as a week of exams. It can run for the whole week from one start.

Zen only runs if you remember to start it. If you have started it at the same hour three weeks in a row, make that a schedule.

With Pro, Zen can run until your tasks are done, with no set length. Use that when you want the jobs on your list finished before the phone comes back, and you can’t say how long they will take.

A schedule

Use a schedule when the trouble arrives at the same hours. Look for the pattern: the hour after you get into bed, the first hour at your desk, the Sunday morning you meant to keep free. A schedule starts without you, so you don’t have to make the decision at that moment.

For a single afternoon, turn on Just today. The schedule runs that day and doesn’t come back.

A schedule is the wrong tool for an app you need during those hours in small amounts. Block a work chat app from 09:00 to 17:00 and you will probably switch the schedule off. Either leave the app out, or give it a limit, or add it to Important apps if you need it through every block. If a limit covers a whole category, time in an Important app inside it can still count toward that limit.

A limit

Use a limit when an app belongs in your day but keeps taking too much of it. You enjoy YouTube in the evening and lose two hours to it. You use a social app to keep up with friends. Give it an amount such as 45 m a day. Once that is used up, the app is blocked until midnight. If notifications are on and the limit is at least 15 minutes, you get a warning with five minutes left.

Plan for three things. A limit counts your time whenever you spend it, so if you use it all by 10:00, the app is gone for the rest of the day. If mornings are the problem, add a schedule. A limit also counts only this iPhone’s use, so an hour on your iPad doesn’t touch it. And the row can’t show minutes left, because Offhours never sees usage numbers. It hears from iOS only when the time is nearly up and when it has been reached.

If you limit one app and your time moves to a similar one, put both on the same limit. They then share the amount.

Always blocked

Use Always blocked when you have decided you don’t want an app in your day at all. It might be the game you have deleted and reinstalled three times, or a betting app. Apps on this list stay blocked around the clock until you take them off under Blocks.

Deleting the app is a fair alternative, and it needs no blocker. Always blocked keeps the app and whatever it has stored on your phone in place, which helps if you expect to want it back later.

Keep off this list any app you sometimes need. If you have to take it off every few days to pay a bill or check a booking, a schedule or Important apps will serve you better.

Using more than one

Blocks run independently. If Zen and a schedule both hold an app, ending Zen leaves it blocked until the schedule lets go, and the blocked screen is built to say what is holding it.

They combine well. You could run a schedule from 22:00 to 06:00 on most apps, give social apps 1 h a day, and keep one game on Always blocked. Build up to that. Start with one block for your worst hour and run it for a week. That week also shows you which apps belong in Important apps, the list that stays open through every block.

When to add Lock

Lock is a Pro feature. It stops you ending or changing Zen or a schedule once it has started, or a limit once it is used up. Zen keeps one way out, End Zen early, once every 7 days. Look at why you have been ending blocks early before you turn it on. If you ended one because you needed the app for something real, change the block or add the app to Important apps. If you ended it because you wanted the app, Lock is meant for that.