Skip to content
PushPact

How to stop doomscrolling: 12 fixes that actually work

Why doomscrolling is so hard to quit, and 12 practical fixes for your iPhone, your evenings and your habits, from turning off notifications to earning your scroll.

By PushPact · 9 min read

Doomscrolling is the scroll that keeps going after the fun stopped. You’re not enjoying it. You’re not learning anything. You’re just not stopping.

It isn’t a character flaw. A feed has no last page, and the next post might be the good one, so your thumb keeps asking. Stopping always takes a decision, and you’re asked to make it when you’re tired, bored or anxious. That’s exactly when you’re worst at it.

So the trick isn’t trying harder. It’s moving the decision. Here are 12 fixes, from the easiest to the strongest.

Change the phone

1. Turn off notifications for every feed

Every buzz is an invitation back in. Go to Settings › Notifications and switch off everything from social and video apps. Keep messages from real people. If you’re worried about missing something, use a Scheduled Summary so they arrive once or twice a day, together.

2. Get the apps off your home screen

A lot of scrolling starts on autopilot: unlock, tap the icon in the usual spot, gone. Long-press the app and choose Remove App › Remove from Home Screen. It still lives in the App Library, you just have to mean it.

3. Make the screen boring

Feeds are designed in full colour. Grayscale takes some of the shine off. Turn it on in Settings › Accessibility › Display & Text Size › Color Filters, then set it as your Accessibility Shortcut so a triple-click flips it on and off.

4. Log out after every session

Having to type a password is a small wall, and small walls work. You’ll be surprised how often “eh, never mind” wins.

Change the moments

5. Charge your phone outside the bedroom

Night is prime doomscrolling time: you’re tired, the room is dark and nobody’s waiting for you. Put the charger in the kitchen and buy a cheap alarm clock. We wrote a whole guide on stopping the scroll at night.

6. Don’t start the day in the feed

The first scroll of the morning sets the tone. Do one thing before you look: get dressed, make coffee, do a set of push-ups. Then decide.

7. Know your triggers

Open Settings › Screen Time › See All App & Website Activity and look at pickups and first apps used. Most people find a pattern: waiting in line, after a hard email, on the couch at 10 pm. Pick one and plan what you’ll do instead.

Add friction that holds

8. Set Screen Time limits, and give away the passcode

iPhone’s App Limits are a decent start, but the “Ignore Limit” button makes them easy to skip. Turn on Lock Screen Time Settings with a passcode someone else sets. Now “fifteen more minutes” means asking them. The full setup is in our guide to reducing screen time on iPhone.

9. Make opening the app cost something

A pause before the app opens helps. A cost helps more. With PushPact, the apps you pick stay locked until you do your push-ups: 10 reps open them for 15 minutes, and keeping your daily pact opens them till midnight. Most of the time you’ll see the lock and just walk away. When you don’t, you did ten push-ups first.

10. Use the browser instead of the app

Most social sites work in Safari, and they’re clunkier there. Clunky is good. Delete the app, keep the website for when you actually need it.

Replace it

11. Have a two-minute alternative ready

Doomscrolling fills empty moments. If you take it away without a replacement, the urge just waits. Pick something you can do anywhere in two minutes: a set of push-ups, a walk around the block, a page of a book you leave on the couch.

12. Do it with friends

Willpower runs out. Friends don’t let you off. A few people who see whether you kept today’s promise is a stronger reason than any setting. PushPact crews show who’s done today, and you can cheer, nudge or dare each other. Here’s how to run a challenge with friends.

Does a break actually help?

There’s decent evidence that it does. In a University of Bath randomized trial, adults who stopped social media for one week reported better wellbeing and less anxiety and depression than people who carried on as usual. You don’t have to quit forever to feel a difference.

What usually doesn’t work

  • Deleting everything forever. It works for a few days, then you reinstall in a weak moment and feel worse. Lock instead of delete.
  • Willpower alone. You’re asking the tired version of you to beat an app built by thousands of engineers. Change the setup, not your resolve.
  • Guilt. Shame makes people scroll more, not less. Treat a long scroll as information about a trigger, not a verdict on you.

Where to start

Pick three: notifications off (1), apps off the home screen (2), and one real lock (8 or 9). That covers the autopilot, the invitation and the moment of weakness. Give it two weeks, then look at your Screen Time again.

Sources

  1. Lambert et al. (2022), Taking a one-week break from social media improves well-being, depression, and anxiety (University of Bath)
  2. iPhone User Guide: Set up Screen Time for yourself

Quick answers.

What is doomscrolling?

Doomscrolling is scrolling through a feed long past the point of enjoying it, often through bad news or content that leaves you feeling worse, because the feed never gives you a natural place to stop.

Why can't I stop doomscrolling?

Feeds are endless and unpredictable: the next post might be great, so you keep going. There's no last page, so stopping always takes a decision, and tired brains are bad at making it. The fix is to put the decision somewhere else: off your home screen, behind a lock, or behind a few push-ups.

What is the fastest way to stop doomscrolling?

Add friction right at the moment you open the app. Move social apps off your home screen, turn off their notifications, and lock them behind something that costs effort, like a Screen Time passcode a friend holds or 10 push-ups with PushPact.

Does taking a break from social media help?

In a University of Bath randomized trial, adults who stopped social media for one week reported better wellbeing and less anxiety and depression than a group who carried on as usual.

PushPact for iPhone

Earn your scroll.

Your apps stay locked until you do your push-ups, and your iPhone’s camera counts every rep. Do it with friends.

Download on the App Store

Keep reading