Not "checking it too much" addicted. Actually addicted...

I'd wake up at 3am to pee and spend 90 minutes on TikTok before realizing what happened...

I'd promise my girlfriend I'd be present at dinner, then scroll through the entire meal. I'd block out Saturdays to get things done and somehow it would be 6pm with nothing accomplished except 8 hours of screen time and a pit in my stomach.

I tried everything...

Deleted Instagram 21 times in one month. Used every app blocker on the market. Put my phone in a drawer across the house, then retrieved it 10 minutes later like a pathetic addict.

The worst part?

I knew exactly what I was doing. I could see myself reaching for the phone as I'd watch my hand tap the app. I'd feel the craving build. And I couldn't stop.

One night I caught my reflection in my phone screen at 1:47am. Dark circles. Dead eyes. Slouched on the couch like a zombie. I'd been scrolling for four hours. I had a meeting the next morning I hadn't prepared for and that's when it hit me...

This isn't a willpower problem. It's a design problem. Every app blocker was built on trust. "Don't tap this button." "Don't uninstall." "Just have discipline."

They were asking me to defeat my addiction with the same brain that was addicted. It's like asking an alcoholic to bartend and just "resist." I needed something that didn't trust me at all. So I built a system that physically locked my phone. Not with passwords I could reset, not with timers I could ignore, but actually locked and impossible to bypass.

The first week was brutal. Phantom vibrations. Reaching for my phone 200 times a day out of pure habit. But by day 30, something shifted. I started two businesses. I wrote 40,000 words toward the book I'd been "planning" for three years. My girlfriend said I was "back", like the person she met before the phone ate me.

It wasn't because I had more willpower. It's because I removed the choice. When I told a few friends what I'd done, they all said the same thing: "Can you do that for me?"

So we locked their phones. And in week 3, something clicked. One friend hit a breaking point and wanted to unlock everything and give up. But the rest of us were there. We'd all felt it. We talked him through it. That's when I realized: The technology forces you to start. But you need other people to finish.

The lock removed my ability to fail. The community removed my desire to.

That's why I built HardStop.

A 90-Day Digital Detox Challenge that hard-locks your chosen apps with zero workarounds and a $10,000 guarantee you won't find a loophole. This gives you the opportunity to build a life you're actually proud of alongside others doing the same.