here's what helped my procrastination and doom scrolling addiction
Hey guys, I'm a freshman in college, and I've tried pomodoro timers, lofi playlists, and putting screen time restrictions on my phone, but nothing really worked long-term. What actually helped me was knowing my friends were studying at the same time. It gave me a sense of motivation and discipline to actually lock in.
My friends and I started renting out study rooms in libraries and holding each other accountable. We all purposely put our phones on the opposite sides of the room so we wouldn't be tempted to use them. It actually worked, and I felt I was getting more stuff done throughout the day, even when most of us had different majors from each other.
But it soon died down because we all had different classes and schedules, so it was hard to find a consistent time to study. That's when I had the idea to create a web app where we could all study together online and send focus boosts to each other. It's still an early project, but if anyone wants to try it out and let me know if it helps them, here it is: https://studysprint.co/
That’s actually a really smart approach.
A lot of productivity advice focuses on tools — timers, apps, playlists — but the real driver is often social accountability. When you know other people are focusing at the same time, it becomes much harder to fall into endless scrolling.
I like the idea of putting phones on the other side of the room too. It sounds simple, but removing that easy reach can make a huge difference.
Curious to see how it evolves — projects like this can help a lot of people who deal with the same distraction problem.
The accountability angle is strong.
One thing I learned building Monk Mode on Mac is that blocking the whole internet is usually overkill. What got better results was removing the discovery surfaces that trigger the spiral in the first place. YouTube Home, Shorts, Reddit front pages, X For You. People can still get to the exact thing they meant to use, but the slot machine part is gone.
For Study Sprint, I would test that same idea inside the product. Make the focused path dead simple, and make wandering off slightly annoying. Not punitive, just enough friction that the intended behavior wins.
Feels like your social accountability layer plus that kind of environment design could be a really good combo.
Nice idea. Do you think this works better for solo builders
The accountability angle is the real insight here. You figured out something that a lot of productivity tool makers miss: most people don't fail because they lack a better timer or playlist. They fail because there's no social cost to quitting. When your friends are in the room, closing your laptop feels like letting them down. When you're alone, nobody notices.
I build mobile apps and one thing I've learned from user research is that the habit-formation side is where most productivity tools break down. People download them excited, use them for a week, then forget they exist. The ones that stick tend to have some kind of external accountability baked in, whether that's a friend, a streak, or just making the barrier to start really low.
For the cold start problem Robert mentioned, you might want to think about making the solo experience good enough on its own. If the app is only useful when friends are online, you're always fighting the coordination problem. But if studying solo with the app still feels better than studying without it (maybe through focus sessions, progress tracking, or even matching with strangers who are studying the same subject), then friends become a bonus rather than a requirement.
Hi clouis07 - made an account! something I noticed right away is that none of my friends are on the app, and I probably wouldn't tell my friends about it because I haven't experienced the app benefits myself. Is there any incentive for me to study with strangers? Or do you imagine people would bring their full friend groups to the app?