Hey there,

I’ve written about 60+ ways to make money online & have researched and read about hundreds of them. Now most of the times, I hear about an idea, go into the rabbit hole, try to learn about it in detail & then if it’s genuine, I write about it for you.

But sometimes, I come across an idea that is too tempting to share & instead I think of keeping it aside in my think vault & do it myself. These are the ideas that you’d not find anywhere else on the internet!

But I was talking to a millionaire the other day & told him about my vault and how I was gatekeeping some great ideas & he said something that made me think upon my life choices.

He said, “ Still water accumulates algae & garbage while moving water stays clear.”

Hence I have a new segment in my newsletter, I’ll share the ideas which I had gatekept for myself and let’s call it Steal This Idea.

There’ll be one newsletter issue for this every week from now on.

Let’s see the first one

The average person spends 7-8 hours a day on their phone. Not working. Not creating. Scrolling or DOOMSCROLLING, to be precise. That's 70 full days every single year, gone into an Instagram/TikTok feed that’s full of brainrot.

People know this. People hate this. And people still can't stop. These social media algorithms are actually built on this very premise. They promote such stuff that gives your brain a dopamine kick & hence acting addictive like any other drug out there.

There are a shit ton of apps trying to solve this but every one of them uses the same playbook: block the app, set a timer, get locked out. But here’s the deal: It doesn't work because the "Ignore Limit" button is one tap away, and most people press it reflexively. You're not fighting your phone. You're fighting yourself. A blocker can't win that fight.

The existing apps treat doomscrolling like a discipline problem. It's not. It's a replacement problem.

I doomscroll. My screentime is usually upwards of 8Hrs. I've tried three of these apps. I bypassed all of them within a week.

Brick is the closest thing that comes to something that works, but it’s a completely different thing ( A physical product + an app)

What finally worked for me wasn't blocking: it was being aware about the problem & also having something to do instead. The moment I had a workout to get to, a book I was actually into, or even just a glass of water to drink, the urge to scroll dropped. My brain didn't need Instagram. It needed something. Instagram was just the easiest something available.

I can't build apps yet. I'm a newsletter guy. But I think about this problem a lot, and I think I know what the right solution looks like. So here it is.

The app doesn't block Instagram. It intercepts the moment before you open it.

Here's how it works: when you try to open TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, whatever your poison is, the app doesn't let you in immediately. Instead, it shows you one screen. A simple question: "What do you actually want right now?"

Then it gives you options you've pre-set yourself. A 5-minute walk. A glass of water. Three deep breaths. A page of your book. One pushup. Whatever you've decided your replacement habits are.

You pick one. You do it. Then the app lets you in, or more often, you don't even want to go in anymore. Because the urge was never really about Instagram. It was about boredom, anxiety, or avoidance. And you just addressed that.

That's the whole product. Friction plus a redirect, not a wall.

There’s another alternate that I am not sure about but can work. If you go into the screen time settings, there’s an option of screen distance. Turn it on & anytime you’re scrolling your phone while it’s too close to your eyes, it abruptly displays a message to maintain proper distance before you can resume using your phone.

Now I turned it on for my phone & every time my phone is too close, the message flashes. And trust me it’s irritating AF. But I mean that’s a good thing. If you get interrupted while using your phone quite a few times, maybe you stop using it frequently.

I am not sure about this one but there can be various angles that can be taken to work on this.

How it makes money: Subscription. $4.99/month or $29.99/year. The people who actually want to fix this problem will pay that without blinking. There's also a clear upsell path — streaks, coaching content, habit data insights for premium users.

There are a dozen blocker apps on the App Store. None of them have cracked retention because blockers feel like punishment, and people quit them. The behaviour-replacement angle is underexplored. One app, Pushscroll, has gone viral recently by making you do pushups to unlock screen time. It's rough around the edges and fitness-specific. Nobody has built the clean, general-purpose version of this idea.

The timing is also right because Apple's Screen Time API keeps improving, it's now much easier to build these tools without jumping through hoops. The technical barrier is lower than it was two years ago.

The options list has to be the user's own choices, not the app's suggestions.

Every app that gives you "try meditating instead!" fails because it feels preachy. You're not going to meditate just because an app told you to. But if you decided, on a calm Tuesday afternoon, that when you feel like scrolling you'll do three deep breaths or text a friend, that's different. That's a commitment you made to yourself. The app just holds you to it.

The setup flow is everything. Spend the first three minutes getting the user to define their own replacement habits. That's the product.

If you’re into building apps and all, go do it. Alternately, Claude or ChatGPT will help a lot too, or even better, go and learn SwiftUI. The idea is solid. The gap is real. The market is millions of people who've already proven they'll pay for this.

I have also written a semi-detailed issue on how to build IOS apps from scratch. You can read it here.

Go.

Talk soon, Kris

P.S- Go and check your screen time & tell me how much is it. Just want to feel better seeing other people also using their phones for 7-8 hours a day lol.