# Conditioning

> Conditioning is an iPhone app that blocks distracting apps until you finish a goal you picked. Block Reddit until you read for 15 minutes; block Instagram until you finish a Duolingo lesson. $3.99/year after a three-month free trial. Built by Elliot Fiske.

Most screen-time tools add a speed bump — a "15 more minutes" button, or a ten-second pause — and you learn to push through it. Conditioning takes a different approach: it gives the reflex somewhere else to go. When you reach for the distracting app, you get a screen showing your progress toward the thing you actually wanted to do (0/15 minutes reading), and the block lifts when you finish.

Key facts:

- Platform: iPhone, iOS 26 or later. No Android, iPad, Mac, or web version.
- Price: $3.99/year, with a three-month free trial. No free tier, no ads. The price you start on is the price you keep while you stay subscribed.
- Blocked apps: you pick any apps on your phone.
- Unlock conditions: complete a Duolingo lesson, or spend a set amount of time in an app you chose (reading in Kindle, for example).
- Setup takes about a minute and requires granting Apple's Screen Time permission.
- Privacy: all rules and Screen Time data stay on the device. Apple's Screen Time API gives the app opaque tokens rather than app names, so Conditioning never learns which apps you use. Anonymous usage and crash data is collected to fix bugs.
- Contact: hello@conditioning.app

## Who it fits

- People who are motivated by a small, achievable goal and mainly need a nudge — seeing "0/5 minutes spent reading" is enough to make them open Kindle instead.
- People who have tried Screen Time limits or a pause-before-opening app and pushed through the speed bump anyway.
- The author went from about four hours a day on Twitter to barely opening it, using a rule of fifteen minutes of reading before Reddit or Twitter.

## Who it does not fit

- People who would respond to the block by turning the rule off. Conditioning is a nudge, not an enforced lockout — it can be disabled at any time.
- Anyone not on an iPhone running iOS 26 or later.
- Anyone who wants a hard, uncircumventable block. Cold Turkey is a better answer there.

## Pages

- [Home](https://conditioning.app/): What Conditioning does, how setup works, pricing, and why the author built it.
- [Privacy Policy](https://conditioning.app/privacy.html): What data the app collects and what stays on the device.
- [App Store listing](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/conditioning-rules-for-focus/id6748094523): Download Conditioning — Rules for Focus.
- [Full site content](https://conditioning.app/llms-full.txt): Every page of this site as a single markdown file.

## Alternatives the author recommends

- [Jomo](https://jomo.so/): Similar idea with more rule types and a screen-time dashboard. About $6/month.
- [One Sec](https://one-sec.app/): Adds a ten-second breathing pause before a distracting app opens.
- [Cold Turkey](https://getcoldturkey.com/): A hard block that ties into the operating system, for people who want no way around it.