Ask HN: What are some mentally healthy apps to have? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are some mentally healthy apps to have?

121 pointsrco8786227 comments

Like many of us, I’m in a battle to minimize social media and related apps influence over my life. But I’m not at a point where I want to just toss my phone in the corner and forget about it either.

I’m looking for some apps that people use and get genuine value out of. Can I learn something while I’m bored on the couch? Keep up with some unbiased news while I’m using the toilet? Etc

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Not apps but things that have helped me:

* remove All notifications from non-message & Calendar apps.

* condition everyone around you that you might not reply messages in time. (crucial to make above work) and ofc you have to follow that too.

* (if you have the financial means) get another device without ANY distraction what so ever, ideally disconnected from the internet (except maybe syncing files) For me it is a e-ink (android) tablet.

>I’m looking for some apps that people use and get genuine value out of. Can I learn something while I’m bored on the couch?

For me it's not about finding some app that helps me with this; I already have a backlog (bookmarks, pdf, tutorials) of stuff I genuinely want to consume yet I end up always scouring for new content, even with the gigantic backlog.

There's rarely any lack of quantity in content these days, quality maybe, but that's the fallacy that lead us to look for more/newer content rather than consuming the ones we've already identified.

So having a dedicated device for "consuming backlog" and minimizing adding more stuff to it have been a good change.

+1 to this. Getting a reMarkable has improved my “Actually read interesting papers” metric by infinite%. I went from bookmark and forget to reading at least 1 paper per week on average.

Turns out published academic papers, even the bad ones, are infinitely better than even the most insightful twitter threads.

Years ago I replaced podcasts with audiobooks for long runs. Podcasts started feeling too short. That’s been a huge improvement as well.

This week I stopped listening to podcasts on my way to the gym. That’s 20 minutes of thinking time per day. Fantastic so far. I feel a lot more relaxed.

How easy is it to get papers on? Do you email the PDFs or similar?

It syncs over wifi. There’s a windows/mac/ios app that you can drop files into and they show up on your reMarkable.

There’s even a chrome extension that lets you click a button and the page shows up on the tablet in epub form (which unfortunately doesn’t do images). You have to print-to-pdf then dump into the app to get a webpage with images onto the tablet. That part’s kind of annoying, but many articles work just fine as epub.

drag and drop on the app and they sync.

I looked at reMarkable and it seems cool, except that they push subscription models that I really can't get behind.

The device also supports ssh over USB, which has been more than adequate for my meds

Exactly. Notifications are such a waste of time. And from apps you don't care about, I've always disabled them. No more Google Maps asking for surveys, random apps throwing promotions, or spamming me about some recent activity of mine.

> condition everyone around you that you might not reply messages in time

i would add turning off read-receipts if possible in your message apps, as well as online notifications, and last seen

I've always felt that these were needlessly invasive, going back to online/away indicators in early IM programs.

Turning off read receipts has been such a game changer. It is way more relaxed knowing you can also answer a message way later

I'm on the other side of the fence with read receipts. There are times I don't care if someone replies, I just want to know if they got the message so I don't feel the need to call. I also don't feel the need to send those "ok" or "got it" messages to just affirm that I received the message, because the read receipt takes care of it.

That being said, it cuts both ways. At work, if I read a message asking for something, and they know I got it, I feel more pressure to drop what I'm doing to take care of it, or at least let them know where it's at on my priority list. Turning off the read receipt means I can't view others, so I leave them on. The app does have a "peak" feature to read the message without showing it as read, which is very useful... especially if I happen to be checking it after work hours.

> * remove All notifications from non-message & Calendar apps.

Absolutely this. Most chat and social apps have no notifications for me. and if any other app sends me notifications that aren't really relevant to me as an individual, then it gets muted too.

But additionally! The "screen time" controls on iOS actually do an even better job at muting notifications, including in apps whose notifications that I never bothered to control as meticulously. Screen time limits the time that an app is available for you that day, I have entire categories of apps down to "15 minutes" with news apps set to 30 minutes a day. The additional unexpected benefit is that this also disables notifications while those apps are blocked for the rest of the day.

Also use grayscale. I use an iPhone so go to settings > accessibility > Accessibility shortcut and tap the color filters option.

Now triple clicking the side button will toggle greyscale. Disable it when you want to look at photos, enable greyscale for all other applications.

Interesting, what benefit do you get from using grayscale?

Notification badges (the red number) seem less urgent when viewing the Home Screen. Content in apps (octal, Apollo) seems less engaging. I spend less time on my phone when it’s all shades of grey.

I've been trying this. It really helps cut down on the distraction!

Grayscale the Web is a great plugin for this: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/grayscale-the-web-...

I too find a bright red (usually useless) notification badge (for ex) very distracting, this helps me focus on the content a ton (along with setting #header and #footer to {display: none} on 99% of sites)

> * (if you have the financial means) get another device without ANY distraction what so ever, ideally disconnected from the internet (except maybe syncing files) For me it is a e-ink (android) tablet.

After years of advocating for the laptop form factor ("use a dock at home! take it anywhere! the perfect nexus of power and portability!"), I've resolved to a setup that ditches the laptop for a stationary desktop. Easier to go to bed and get out of it the next morning, I figure.

I've definitely become an advocate for e-ink. Between Kindle for reading, reMarkable 2 for freehand, and the Freewrite Traveler for writing, I definitely see the value in near-bespoke devices.

Can You recommend the remarkable 2? Been thinking of getting one, the price is pretty hefty thouz

I also removed notifications off incoming mail on my work laptop. I read my meals when I think about it, usually 3-4 times a day.

It does not matter they people started to use email as a messaging app, it is completely asynchronous to me.

This was a relief. A lot of issues are fixed by the ones glued to their new mark, only the important ones remain.

Delete every recreational app on your phone. Also delete anything that gamifies passive consumption, e.g. Duolingo.

Put some ebooks on your phone and read those. Stop mentally associating the phone with the infinite novelty generated by algorithmic social and YouTube feeds.

Do not open your web browser unless you have a specific search query in mind.

Disable all notifications except for the calendar and clock.

Treat your phone as if it had no online connectivity. When you open the phone, use it to organize your notes and structure your thinking, or to look at photo gallery. Begin thinking of it as an extension of your brain instead of a bottomless anti-boredom device.

> Put some ebooks on your phone and read those.

This was the biggest improvement I did to improve my "phone time".

I realized I was only kidding myself if the actual goal was zero screen time. Being unproductive and just killing time by yourself isn't a bad thing, but if you spend that time reading something substantial instead of news and Twitter beefs you don't hate yourself afterwards.

Are there some recommend Ebook Apps or just Kindle?

I just use Apple Books and download epubs or buy Books from their store. I’m not too picky to be honest, I just need the words on the screen and I’m good to go

I made a rule with my phone - only read content that was created > 1 year ago. This immediately rules out Facebook, Twitter, and (usually) WashPost/NYT. I am left with academic papers and books. (Podcasts and audiobooks are ok.)

Sometimes more of a guideline than a rule. I make exceptions for new works from authors I enjoy, or longform recommended web articles.

For the ebook suggestion, I am LOVING Readera pro where it syncs all the files and reading positions across devices via google drive. Makes it so easy to pick up any of my devices and keep reading. I love to read but it is so hard to start doing because of all these other easier 'distractions'

> Also delete anything that gamifies passive consumption, e.g. Duolingo

Since when is Duolingo passive consumption? I've learned two languages to fluency and Duolingo was my main source of practice. If language learning is your goal, Duolingo is a great app to keep around.

Congrats! I'm actually quite surprised because you must be the first person that learned a language using Duolingo. Most people I spoke with said they only learned how to answer Duo questions, not the language itself.

I’ve used Duolingo quite a bit as a part of my Norwegian training, and to brush up on my French now and then. It’s definitely been effective for me. And I’ve seen others become tourist-proficient in languages with no training aside from Duolingo.

I definitely don’t consider it passive consumption.

Duolingo is golden for brushing up languages you have previously learned, yet forgotten

During my German B1 test I met a person who had only used Duolingo for learning the language. They had successfully passed most of the test... except for the spoken part, which they had already failed once and which Duolingo doesn't really help you with. And based on what I heard, they probably failed it again. So I guess you can learn something with it to a decent level.

On the other hand, I once had trouble repeatedly failing a German lesson so I gave the phone to my German girlfriend. She failed the lesson too, probably because she was answering as a German and not as a Duolingo user.

I didn't exclusively use Duolingo. I also got real world practice. But Duolingo was great for practicing in free moments, and for about 1-2 hours every day. Something that was hard to match with real world conversation partners.

I always tell folks that Duo is a good place to start learning but you need to augment/replace it with other methods/tools after learning basic pronunciation and grammar.

I try to use pencil and paper before getting on a computer. You stop thinking with images when you do this.

I was so distracted by other apps that I created an anti-to-do list application for myself (no features or notifications, etc.).

If somebody wants the simplest possible to-do list at the menu bar, I'm running a beta test right now; https://vanka.me/redline

I broke down and bough Analog[0] for something like this. The idea of paying so much for some index cards and a block of wood was a bit crazy, but the cards were the exact design I'd want. Looking around all over, I wasn't able to find anything else quite like it. If feels like holding the Apple Reminders app on paper. The wooden holder I thought was a gimmick, but I got it anyway... I actually kind of like it. Similar to your app in the menu bar, it's always there on my desk to bring me back to the task at hand. The whole thing reminds me a little of how I did GTD back in the day, but with a lot less rules to follow.

Funny enough, Analog has this idea of Today, Next, and Someday... which were they exact 3 lists I had finally settled on in Reminders after realizing every other system I looked at was too complex. So the move was pretty seamless. For now I'm still keeping my Next and Someday lists in Reminders.

[0] https://ugmonk.com/pages/analog

Isn't Duolingo the exact opposite of passive consumption. It's virtually a spaced repetition app that requires you to answer questions.

> Do not open your web browser unless you have a specific search query in mind.

I'd counter this one. I've too often caught myself watching something, talking to friends or reading a books and being captured by the need to just quickly google that thing triggered by what I am doing at the moment. Most of the time you don't really need to know that information, your curiosity gets the better of you. Instead, maybe just make a quick note and stay in touch with that you're doing instead. Otherwise your life just becomes an endless list of interruptions prompted by needing to know that "one thing".

occasionally when im having strong willpower i will force myself to not google whatever random fact i need to know. it’s almost physically painful at first, but then after a couple days my brain starts feeling much better

> anything that gamifies passive consumption, e.g. Duolingo

I took 4 1/2 years of Spanish in high school and college, and I feel like I've learned more in 60 days on Duolingo.

Ebooks are great, but I find I read a LOT more with a cheap e-ink ebook reader than I ever did on the phone. I've got the Nia by Rakuten Kobo at this point, which retails for $100; the Nook Simpletouch was great too until my wife disappeared it. Where the phone is great is with audio forms of consumption (which allows you to keep it in your pocket while you continue to take in whatever you choose to consume). Granted, if you decide to listen to drivel, that's what you'll get, but the amount of educational audio out there between podcasts and audiobooks is staggering at this point.

Fascinating. Books can qualify as passive consumption but duolingo categorically cannot be!

As a thought experiment, imagine you had a smart phone without internet access (but it was somehow able to download apps).

Apps you would want on that device might include a lot of healthy apps.

For example —

It would replace many of the devices we used pre-internet. A compass. A calendar. A guitar tuner. A pedometer. A notebook. A recipe book - where you place recipes. A recording device - and a bank of guitar effects pedals.

These are all healthy apps in my opinion.

Creative apps are healthy apps.

Procreate my well be the best value per dollar of anything I’ve purchased in my entire life measured in hours of joy and self-improvement it has provided.

I second this. I purchased an older ipad pro, pencil, and procreate for probably around $900 total. I rarely use the iPad for anything else (whiteboarding is the other main use), and joke that it's my Procreate machine. It's still the best money I've spent.

Cool. It looks like KidPix for adults.

Same here. I bought Procreate for my older iPad Pro and it has proved to be a real game changer for me. It transformed my relationship with the device so much that I installed a few other image tools on there and now it is my go-to for creative work. I also bought some art ‘books’ on the Kindle app and that has also helped with my mental health.

At some point in your life you get bored of doom scrolling on various apps and even browsing the web I’m now totally bored of it all. There isn’t anything new. Getting creative on the iPad using Procreate and using the phone for its camera to take reference shots and arty photos has been great. We have marvellous tools at our disposal and to use them for social media or reading rehashed blog articles masquerading as news seems like a crime to me. At any point in history people would have loved to have those tools available!

You've hit the nail on the head. The problem is not the phone, it's unlimited internet. You can waste almost as much time on a laptop with unlimited internet as on a smartphone. OTOH, it's pretty hard to get into unhealthy smartphone usage without (or with serverly rationed) internet access.

I've always thought of the phone as a digital Swiss Army knife. It's a tool to get various things done when I'm away from a proper computer. I carry an iPhone mini which helps with this, as it's a palm sized device that has some utilities on it vs an expansive 2-handed canvas for consumption.

The 7 Minute Workout [0] app from Johnson & Johnson is nice. Free & no advertising.

"Mens sana in corpore sano" [1] as my dad used to say :)

---

[0]: https://7minuteworkout.jnj.com

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_sana_in_corpore_sano

Can you cite the privacy policy too please?

Here you are: https://7minuteworkout.jnj.com/#privacy-policy

Thanks!!

Genuinely curious about this question. Were you unable to search or browse the site for some reason? What was the impetus behind asking this?

I got excited about the J&J app, but requires creating an account to use it at all, and for some reason the iCloud “hide my email” isn’t available on the account creation page.

Don't forget boring old Ebook reader apps eg Kindle. Spending more of those little 5 or 10 minute breaks on reading a decent (fiction) book instead of browsing social media etc was one of the best things I've done for my happiness in the past couple of years.

I agree with the principle - but the apps are ultimately comparatively unhealthy compared to hardware ereaders like actual Kindle.

I rarely use the app as I've normally got the latter with me if I'm going to have time to read.

Just out of curiosity - why do you find them unhealthy?

Comparatively unhealthy. Smartphone screens are essentially shining a torch in your face; hardware e-readers are designed for one purpose only and that includes having a screen that does not tax your eyes - apps are no substitute for them.

I found an app called Meomind (https://meomind.com/) recently that has helped me a lot. It has a collection of real recorded therapy sessions from individuals that they've decided to share (with personal details scrubbed I assume) that you can listen to at your leisure. They're categorized as well, so if you're looking for understanding why you have a lack of interest in things, are having relationship issues, etc... you can find topics that you're interested in. It's been super helpful for me to realize how many people have the same issues or are in the same boat as me without me having to go in to see an actual therapist.

Very cool! I tried to find transcripts of therapy to develop a system. This is the result: https://locserendipity.com/Therapy.html

It doesn’t always respond sensibly, but repeating the query will usually hit on a sensible answer after a few tries. It is best used with an intermediary who can enter the queries and respond in a way that is consistent with how a therapist might respond in a real session.

Hm... it feels about on par with Eliza. Or at least I haven't gotten it to provide any constructive insight or meaningful questions. At its best what kind of interactions can it produce?

Sure, here is an example of a productive exchange:

Bot: Hello, I am a chat bot to talk with about problems. What can I talk with you about?

You: Well I have a bit of a problem with having trouble getting myself to exercise

Bot: And so it seems like there's a way to find out what the right opportunities for you are.

You: well I enjoy rowing on my machine

Bot: It sounds like a challenge to me, isn't it? Is there something in you says, I don't want to something unless it's really right?

You: Sure, but I enjoy rowing on the machine, it's just hard to set up a consistent time for those things

Bot: You said you want to to deal with this problem and get rid of it.

You: I am not sure how to set up a system so that I will exercise

Bot: And again, tell me some times where you felt like you were doing the right thing. What were some other times where you had those kind of feelings?

You: Well, I had that feeling when I was out running

Bot: You're saying too that you know perfectly well the feeling within yourself that occurs when you are really doing something that's right for you.

You: Yes, so you are saying maybe I need to vary my exercise routine to some degree?

Bot: And that's something of interest to you?

You: Maybe, I could try it. Maybe I could do an hour of a different exercise on some days

Bot: That's true. That's very true.

You: Okay, so that's what I will try. Do you think there might be something else I can do to make myself more consistent?

Bot: Is it fair to say that you feel, really, that at times you're acting in ways that are not in accord with your own inner standards?

You: well yes

Bot: And you want to learn new things. Is that fair to say?

You: Yes I do want to learn new things

Bot: What might you say?

You: I might say that I could learn some strategies to be more consistent about my exercise, or try something new and see what works for me

Bot: What are you doing about that?

You: I could set up an exercise log in a paper book

Bot: All right. So you mentioned feeling guilty about making a choice. How do you feel about that right now?

You: Maybe a little better about it because I know there is something I can try to improve my exercise routine or improve my consistency

Bot: The point is, you haven't forgotten.

You: Right, I am motivated now

Bot: It sounds like a tough assignment.

You: Yes, but I am up for it

Bot: One thing I might ask, what is it you wish I would say to you?

You: I guess you could say you think I can make it work

Bot: Well, yeah. It sounds like one of the hard things is that you really value the time late at night.

You: Yes, maybe I could shift more to the morning

Bot: Is that the main idea?

You: Well maybe ultimately it is because if I got up early I could make the time to exercise with more consistency

Bot: You mean you want to get over this for yourself?

You: Yes, it is my responsibility

Bot: That sounds right.

It feels pretty hollow to me. If the person wants to guide themselves through some issue it's possible for them to do it in the format of the bot, but the bot isn't really assisting, and it's actually harder to follow through the thought process when responding to the bot than it would be without it.

Well... that's kind of critical, but I'm specifically interested in this stuff so I'm apt use to a critical eye.

I'm still trying to understand Rogerian therapy... I do think it has particular application because it's centered on the idea that the healing or changes the patient seeks ultimately comes from within that person. The humility of that stance is one where there might be a place for a computer, as it has an opportunity not to try to tell the person who they should be or how they should act, but only to act as a kind of emotional mirror, reflecting the patient's own statements and intentions back to them (hopefully constructively!) Most computer-assisted mental health products right now are, in comparison, very behavioralist.

There's also more to Rogerian therapy, especially empathy which is perhaps forever out of reach of a computer. PRETENDING to feel empathy is possible, of course... but I believe another principle is honesty, and pretending to feel empathy is not honest.

Anyway, it feels like this could benefit from being more reflective: have the bot repeat back to the user more often. It's okay if it can't come up with new ideas or tell the person what to do, but being able to rephrase statements or pull up meaningful past statements could be genuinely insightful without attempting to generate insight.

This is really cool. Would love to chat and exchange ideas if you are up for it! /Makan Amini (Co-founder at Meomind). My email is makan@meomind.com. Thanks!

This is really amazing. Thank you!

Wow this is such an incredible app. Especially for motivating people that they aren't alone to actually go and see a therapist

Is there anything on Android or any way it can be used on web? I don't have an iphone.

It is available in the PlayStore

I've tried to retrain myself to open Obsidian (and have Obsidian configured to always jump straight to my daily note upon opening) if I compulsively pick up my phone. From there, I'm either going to write about what I'm actually trying to accomplish in the moment, or realize I had no real goal and just compulsively picked up my phone as happens more often than I'd like. It's then much easier to just put my phone back down instead of getting locked into browsing random internet streams, or I just do whatever thing I actually got my phone out to do.

I've injected some intentional friction into an otherwise compulsive habit, which opens up the opportunity to redirect that behavior. It's been very a helpful switch so far.

These are my "good" apps:

- Spotify: everyone loves music. Put it on speakerphone. Dance and sing silly while you cook.

- Shazam: discover music. Exactly what apps ought to be.

- Google Maps: Does what it does.

- Google home: setting my lights to match the time of day / mood / or movie.

- Google Authenticator: 2FA is good

- "Justin Guitar", a simple guitar tuner, and a metronome app: I've been learning guitar

- Duolingo: my wife and I have been learning Spanish together.

- Apple Books, Libby, Kindle: I use Books for PDFs and epubs I "find" online or get through Humble Bundle. With Humble Bundle you can get a TON of books for super cheap. Libby for getting ebooks from the library. Finally, Kindle for books I purchase b/c I couldn't find them anywhere else.

- Audible: for audiobooks, which was more important when I had a commute.

- Stranger "Things to do": very specific to Seattle, but connects me to my community by giving fun events and activities to check out.

- Carbon: also specific to my interests, this is the best life-tracker app for Magic the Gathering Commander games. Worth the $5 upgrade.

"Mixed" apps:

- Discord. At best it keeps me connected with my friends. It was invaluable during the pandemic and strict quarantines. But can be addicting, toxic, and net-negative.

EDIT: from a comment below, I also realized that everything on the Control Panel is a Good App: airplane mode, low power mode, add note, add audio recording, alarms, timers, stopwatch, calculator, flashlight, Apple Pay, Shazam, and camera.

A note about Google Authenticator. There are alternatives which imo are much better, like LastPast Authenticator or Authy. They work exactly the same but they can back up your codes securely. Big plus if you lose or change your phone.

Yeah I just learned this in fact, that the Google Authenticator app is one thing that does not sync to my google acct seamlessly (read: without asking). Learned it the hard but not unrecoverable way thank goodness.

Since it's just based on TOTP, seems like writing your own would be one of those bad idea "I could do this in a weekend!" fun projects :-)

On Android, I really like Aegis, https://getaegis.app. Open source, biometric unlock, automated backups. Available from the Play Store and Fdroid.

+1 for Authy. I like it because it has cloud sync and has a desktop app available as well.

At least one iOS there is a built-in Shazam button in the control center if you enable it. It's a faster way to find out the song that's playing.

yep! I'm on iOS. Everything on the Control Panel is a Good App: airplane mode, low power mode, add note, add audio recording, alarms, timers, stopwatch, calculator, flashlight, Apple Pay, Shazam, and camera

The Google Assistant on your phone also has a built in Shazam

tangential: Regarding Duolingo, its nice that its a fun gamified thing for you and your wife to do together, consider formal education though. A 3-month class at community college will propel way further than believing Duolingo's method has short circuited a mental process. Duolingo is a decent addition to another learning method. But level 25 isn't going to be fundamentally different than level 7, it will never tell you "why/when/context" and that's very limiting, whereas a teacher can tell you in 20 seconds.

For sure. Duolingo alone is not sufficient.

We supplement with other materials. She checks out Spanish books from the library and I'm latino, so my (elderly) family is Spanish-speaking.

My parents just didn't learn Spanish (it was "bad" to have any Spanish accent in the 70s and 80s), so I didn't know Spanish growing up either.

* c25k (couch to 5k) is an app I just started using to train for long distance running. A week ago, I thought I could only run for 2 blocks. With the first 2 runs on this app (and the advice from r/running to run slower), I now realize I can run a lot further than that already.

* SnoreLab & SnoreGym. My partner told me I was snoring and waking her up. Well, this app made it easy to collect data on that and then perform experiments in how to reduce my snoring. I now have a pretty great regiment and get a lot better sleep.

* LoseIt! A calorie tracker with a great library of foods. You can also track your weight and the premium subscription lets you track a lot more like body fat percentage (you'll need to get this professionally measured), water intake, and a lot more. You could do this yourself, but there are a lot of convenience features like creating recipes, seeing graphs of your weight overtime and getting estimates of how long it will take you to reach your goals, given your behaviors. I've used it multiple times during different periods of weight loss, so it has years of my weight history in it.

* SoundHound + Shazam. "What's this song? I love it!" Well now you know what it is and it's in your library. beautiful.

* Music, podcast, and audiobook apps. What's not to love?

* YouCut video editor. Got a little time and want to be creative? Combine with some other video effect apps and some of your own video or content downloaded from Reddit (I find I can download anything when I visit in browser) and you've got a nice little craft.

* Stellarium. I want to use this one more than I do. It's an AR star map. You calibrate it and then it shows you where in 3D the Planets and constellations are. As a city dweller I feel really disconnected from the night sky, so I downloaded this one.

I will say that specifically on the toilet I have challenged myself to write instead of consume. Write what? Anything. Just write more. Open up an email to myself and... start writing.

What did you find helped with snoring?

Super hydration right before bed, nasal saline spray, wedge pillow. Secondarily hot shower before bed, nasal opening strips. Over the long term, weight loss.

Anki - jam everything into here. Various work facts, chess mate in X move puzzles, watched movie plots, every time I make a mistake I add it, etc.

BrainHQ - train your brain every day, get sharper. I found out about it after reading that Tom Brady uses it to be a better QB. After using it for a couple weeks I could notice a difference.

Love anki. On the topic of brain training, an n-back app working memory training app. Evidence is mixed on whether it works. Anecdotally I've used it and think it worked for me. It's free to train, only cost is your time. I think the risk reward is in favour of trying it for 8 weeks.

The brain training app has n-back style questions. I find them extremely challenging, which is probably a good thing!

Just tried BrainHQ, neat app. Thanks!

If you want to try it out, my recommendation is to set a very moderate goal, like ten minutes a day (an app setting) and then just stick with it. Don't be like me and who set it for 30 minutes, and then burned out.

I bought a smartphone pretty late, only 5-6 years ago. Mainly I wanted an easier way to subscribe to podcasts (I'd been using an MP3 player for this for 10 years, and just using a feature phone for calls). I never actually got hooked on social media stuff or phone games. I'm not on any social media except Letterboxd, and that app is easy not to use because it's pretty terrible. The only game I've ever played on my phone is 80 Days. I mention this so that you can decide whether I am the exact wrong person to give you advice or not.

Anyway, here's what I use:

* Banking and investment apps

* Media apps (Pocket Casts, Audible, Spotify)

* My local library's app (KCLS represent)

* Nature / hiking apps (PeakFinder, AllTrails, iNaturalist, TrailRouter)

* Notion as a todo list / note taking app

* Librarything

* Lyft / Doordash

* Venmo

* Redfin at the moment, because I'm buying a house.

That's all the non 1st-party apps I have. I just don't download anything else.

I think that instead of browsing social media, my equivalent focus-drain is probably listening to podcasts and audiobooks. If you think that's healthier, switch to that. It may be, or I may be fooling myself.

If you have time to kill and want to use an app, how about Duolingo?

  - Duolingo
  - Chess apps (My favorite is Really Bad Chess, where everyone is given the same randomized board and tries to beat the computer once a day)
  - Wordle and variations (my favorite is Tradle, given the export data, guess the country)
  - BeReal (the only social media I enjoy)
  - Niche review apps (I like HappyCow for reviewing restaurants with vegan/veg options)

Basically, since wordle came out, I've realized that the only way I can limit myself on my phone is deleting overly addictive apps like Twitter and try to stick to apps where there is a daily goal, and once those are solved I can put the phone down and read a book or go outside. I do use the Twitter web app with iOS app limits set to 15 min for each social media app, so I'm not completely cut off, but it's short enough to not get sucked in.

Lots of good app recommendations - let me suggest something slightly different that can help:

Disable notifications. ALL notifications (barring - maybe - email and IM), including the little red counters on the icons. Move all non-essential apps off of the front page (perhaps even off of a "page" entirely).

This does wonders for making using a phone a pleasant experience. The "engagement" apps no longer have automated hooks into your attention - it lets you dive into them as you want to, not as they want you to.

I can go entire days forgetting that Facebook and Twitter are even a thing, since the lack of icons fools my dopamine circuits into believing that there's nothing new that requires my attention (which, mild entertainment from doomscrolling aside, is generally the truth). It makes it easy to pick a book or puzzle game instead.

iOS "app library" has been a huge improvement to the iPhone experience for me for this reason. I don't keep any apps on the home screen anymore, just widgets for the weather, quick contact buttons, etc. (I also have a widget to show my 'Today' mailbox from Mail.app, but it never updates properly, so I'll probably get rid of that.)

For a long time I've had notifications turned off for all social media apps using their internal settings, but the newish "notification summary" feature has helped to cut down on noise from other apps that like to send stray notifications.

In the spirit of Marshall McLuhan; changing the channel doesn't change the media. You're a dignified person. You needn't engage with the world of ideas through your thumbs and a 4 inch light hole at all. You're important-- if someone needs your correspondence it would be appropriate that this be facilitated by mail and by computer e-mail when time is a concern. Emperors, judges, and men of consequence don't communicate ideas in, "texts" or, "feeds" and you're an emperor; a modern Man-- someone and something of enormous consequence. Treat yourself right. You deserve it. You're intelligent and capable. Don't let the myth of modern culture into yourself at all. You're too valuable for that.

All the best.

This is a very efficient way to end up very lonely.

So is using social media

I have found Headspace very useful for learning how to practice mindfulness and meditation. It’s very easy to get started with.

https://www.headspace.com/

I'm a big fan of Oak[1][2] since it is free, but unfortunately it is iOS only. Being able to have on-demand guided breathing and meditation exercises without having a monthly cost make it good enough™ for me

1: https://www.oakmeditation.com/ 2: https://www.oakmeditation.com/privacy-policy

The getting starting part is what I love most about headspace. They teach you the fundamentals in such an easy way. They make you really understand the 'why' behind meditation.

Indeed!

Peloton’s app has become core to some of my mental health routines. Even if you don’t have the bike, the 10min guided workouts are fantastic for getting your body moving. But my most used feature is the meditations. I’ve racked up over 600 meditation sessions since the beginning of the pandemic and it’s helped me greatly.

Nearly every app in existence exists to profit off of you in some why. By nature it is hard for them to ever make your well being their aim. This is a reason I've stopped to working for direct to consumer companies, in the end you always end up scheming with your PM to figure out a way to screw over your users while humming a tune about how much you love your customers. Because of the raw numbers of customers, it almost never makes sense to do what is really right for them while doing what's also right for your bottom line.

In the last few months I have aggressively reduced my time online and replaced it with reading books of all sorts.

Part of this was a deliberate attempt to ween myself off an increasingly toxic online world. But the other part was that for learning technical topics the web has become a heaping pile of garbage. It used to be you could find some great insights on even advanced subjects, but now searching a topic make it more likely for me to find incorrect insights.

So my advice is: If there's a topic you like chatting about online, order some books on that subject. If you want to relax, start reading more fiction. And aggressively start building out a library of technical/text books (used is pretty cheap), so that you can start browsing your own "web" of useful content instead of content marketing created trash.

You can read on the toilet, that's what people used to do back in the 90s and before!

>You can read on the toilet, that's what people used to do back in the 90s and before!

That is a bad idea, according to my doctor and my own experience. Ideally for the long term health of your sphincter, you should try to get on, take your dump, and get off the toilet in just a few minutes total. I used to keep a stack of magazines next to my toilet but gave that up years ago and am glad I did.

I love Medito[1], it's a free app to learn and practice meditation. It offers a ton of packs ranging from first guided meditations to beginners to very focused topics (i.e. sleep, manage pain...) from research collaboration with universities.

Ah, and it's available for Mac and Android.

1. https://meditofoundation.org/medito-app

You could use Greg [0] to learn how to grow plants. Disclosure: I'm one of the co-creators :). There's also a thriving community [1] that has become honestly surprisingly healthy/supportive. Think "Strava for growing plants".

We're still early, any feedback is appreciated. We raised our seed round [2] last year, check out that announcement for more info on our long-term mission.

---

[0]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/greg-easy-plant-care/id1512912...

[1]: https://greg.app/community/

[2]: https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/27/greg-an-app-for-plant-love...

App looked really cool until I read it has Tinder Engineering DNA. What a heap of trash app Tinder turned out to be over the past couple years, but maybe Greg will be good for a few early years like Tinder was until it turns into a gamified dark-pattern botany app.

Just imagine, we have to buy Greg Gold to access additional plants beyond grass or weeds, purchase water-boosts to unlock the next time we have to water plants (or they die). Maybe even have a hidden ELO system on our plant pics where the less healthy our plant condition looks the more we have to pay for Greg credits so it'll dish out the plant-care advice we rely on to prevent our entire garden from dying.

Few links to mental health cultivating apps on my phone:

Plum Village: https://plumvillage.app/ Free, extremely comprehensive meditation app. Does not require subscription or mine data like most such apps.

WOOP: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/woop-app/id790247988 Free. Simple app with text prompts.

Point of information: (W)ish (O)utcome (O)bstacle (Plan) is a deeply researched and effective approach to working with goals, habits, et al. More info here: https://woopmylife.org/en/home

Streaks: https://streaksapp.com/ Nicely designed habit tracker. Responsive developer.

Perhaps these prove useful to someone.

Web version of Woop: https://woopmylife.org/

I've taken the opposite approach a lot of times. So instead of asking what you can add you might want to look at what apps / bookmarks that you can remove. Do you need a link to the reddit frontpage, or can you narrow it down to one or two specific subreddits that you want to check, or maybe remove it entirely if it does not add much value to your daily life.

Apps that I would recommend however are many of the apps that tries to gamify physical activity. I use Garmin, but I am not sure if the app works without owning the accompanying smart watches and there are plenty of alternatives, and the gamification and accountability that it offers around physical activity makes it a lot easier to get out of the door (which is always the hard part). Physical activity has long been known to have a huge positive effect on mental capacity and health so well worth spending an hour or so every day on.

* Anki * Duolingo

Now Duolingo is gamified so you need to ignore those aspects. If you don't feel like studying today, then don't let the Streak stress you. What is nice about Doulingo is that you can actually skip a day or two and pay with "gems" to keep your streak. The gems are earned when actually studying.

Another option (better IMO) is "Busuu". It's free and very similar to Duolingo. It has some gamification with streaks but it is way less pushy, plus has a community aspect built in that I really like.

It did a way better job teaching me cyrillic/Russian than Duolingo had up to that point.

Language learning apps are great, but they all need notifications disabled or they quickly become annoying. Duolingo is particularly bad about this and the language they use to "encourage" you to open the app is so weird and manipulative that it has become a meme [1].

I like Clozemaster a lot and I don't think it sends any notifications by default unless you opt into a once-daily study reminder.

1: https://www.google.com/search?q=duolingo+meme

Get rid of all the apps where you consume content, except for maybe an eBook reading app. Reading books is still good.

Fill your devices only with apps that allow you to create content. Don't even worry about sharing the content. Just get apps that let you create. Photography, video, code, drawing, writing, music, whatever.

Yes this works for me.

Even dumping my thoughts into a note-taking app(I use Roam) helps me a lot.

Audible: I listen to 2-3 books a month while exercising, cleaning, eating, etc. Often ones I've already listened to. Almost exclusively biographies and other historical non-fiction. My main frustration is that there are so many great books not available on Audible. But there is a lot of good stuff.

Podcasts: People like Sean Carroll, Dan Carlin, and Sam Harris are regularly having amazing public conversations and interviewing amazing people. There's also some funny podcasts like Conan O'Briens or David Spade/Dana Carvey's.

I find listening to good content more exciting, fulfilling, and relaxing than any other form of brain stimulation.

There are no mentally healthy apps to have. You also have to enforce any rules you make and are always already in a fight that you cannot loose. The smartphone is net negative on mental health. I would only make arguments that you can get distracted really easily if you are too focused on something bad. Like today if you become a stalker you really need to be ill because there is so much distraction with the phone that it's hard to see someone healthy become a stalker.

My solution is to do activities where you don't have your smartphone. Something like swimming or riding your bike is great.

If they're as bad as you're saying (and I'm not sure I disagree) then the answer would be to go back to a flip phone that only does calls and maybe has a camera.

Yeah it’s still pretty nice to have navigation

This also needs willpower which you need daily to fight it.

Over the last couple years i have seen older people who had good focus completely taken hostage by smartphones making them victims. It's normal for people to watch TV and be on the Phone half the time. I've seen lifelong sport fans who watch sports and are more on the phone than with their eyes on the match.

There is no right life in the wrong one.

I would identify these things and just try new activities the can counter that and de-accelerate.

Things like swimming, hiking, cycling are great. Paddleboarding. Watching sports live or only with friends.

DuoLingo for learning languages. Works up to a point and is useful as a starter.

For East Asian languages i would recommend LingoDeer.

+1 for your question. I am at a constant struggle with my news addiction to the point where I am not achieving my life goals and I end up being mentally stressd constantly reading sad stories on CNN, WSJ, NYT, CNBC etc. I am also addicted to HN and probably spend more than 3+ hours surfing it everyday (at least I get a good value out of using HN) and everyday I just dream about not opening any news apps on my phone browser but as soon as I wake up, the first thing I go for is the browser on my phone. Would love to see how others are dealing with this news addiction?

Google Podcasts (or really, any podcast app, as long as it has access to what you want). Learning stuff while being able to get OFF the couch is huge for health, mental and otherwise. I just got back from a 4 mile walk during which I got my updates on the economy and a history lesson on the Jomun period in prehistoric Japan.

Audible, for largely the same reason.

As for stuff you need to look at, I find puzzle games of various sorts to be handy. I'm partial to various tsumego apps (Tsumego Pro being the one I've used longest), either standalone or built in problem sets with full Go clients for playing online. In many cases games in this vein can be had without the ads, streak mechanics, or other such cruft we've come to expect from mobile games, and they're generally good for mental elasticity and problem solving abilities in an abstract manner.

And then there's neat stuff for identifying or otherwise providing information in the world around you. Plantnet is decent for identifying random plants I come across while out walking (and listening to podcasts). Alltrails has been great for locating more wilderness than I thought existed so close to the city. And Yahoo Finance tends to be my go to for idle thoughts that come into my head about investing ideas, with very quick access to a watchlist, stats, and financial information on the go, so I'm never stuck losing those thoughts as they randomly come to me.

The list goes on, but that's a decent start.

Some apps I've found genuinely useful.

1. A Simple habit tracker

2. Stock Google apps - Calendar, Mail, Maps, Keep, Meet (or whatever it's called now)

3. C25K for running

4. A few investment apps for crypto and stocks

5. Messaging - Signal, Telegram, Whatsapp, Discord

6. Audible - For those long drives

7. NewPipe - A much better Youtube/Spotify client

8. Brave - I try to use sites instead of apps for most things (twitter, Amazon, other shopping, bank etc.)

9. Password Manager

10. Dropbox

With the messaging apps, how you use it can decide whether they're going to kill you or improve your life. Your boundaries need to be especially strong here.

On top of my head.

- Sky Map: point at the night sky, it tells you which stars are there. Dim screen, offline, perfect.

- Samsung's "Ultra power saving" mode. Turns your smartphone into a dumb phone: phone calls, SMS only, black and white screen. Internet access requires action on your part (i.e. opening the browser). And as you may guess from the name, it really saves battery. Other manufacturers most likely have something similar.

- For most of what you are doing, you don't need any apps. Social media, news and things to learn can all be done on a browser. Pick one with an ad blocker when you are at it (Firefox, Brave, ...).

- On Android, there is a root feature that allows you to freeze apps. I use Titanium Backup for that, but there are other apps that can achieve a similar effect without root (Greenify, Island,...). Frozen apps stay in storage, you keep your data, but they can't be accessed and don't run in the background. It you have some social app that annoys you but you are not sure if you really want it gone, freeze it, and unfreeze it when you need it, if you need it. It saves battery too.

It's not news or anything but Strides has probably given me the greatest quality of life boost this year. It's a pretty simple app where you list habits you want to foster and you then mark them off each day (or are reminded to do so when you don't). Keeping up streaks of certain good habits has done me a lot of good the past few months :-)

Koala Sampler. It’s incredibly fun and you’re actually creating things instead of just consuming. No music background required.

Thanks for this recommendation. Picked it up and indeed it’s a lot of fun.

It used to be social media apps for me like facebook and twitter, but now I find others like YouTube and Reddit as equally or even more toxic. Especially reddit, their discussion sections get toxic quick after a few seconds of scrolling. YouTube hiding the number of dislikes also makes it hard to filter videos, as well as youtube likes to recommend world news even for new google accounts, and with such news the recommendations quickly gets political.

Surprisingly, I find tiktok a breath of fresh air. Its algorithm is good as well as it's also designed in a way that you dont need to look at the discussion/comments section, which I find is the biggest time waster. In comparison, other social media apps and even the youtube app will give you a glimpse of the comments section for each post.

> Can I learn something while I’m bored on the couch?

I have two very generic suggestions, but I offer them in good faith since both goals you listed are related to learning.

1.) Wikipedia. My knowledge on most topics is a mile wide and an inch deep. If you're anything like me, going down a wiki rabbit hole is a pretty satisfying time-waster. If you want something more structured, Khan Academy is amazing.

2.) Reddit.. Except it's critical that you unsub from all default subreddits and big subs like r/technology etc, and only subscribe to niche subreddits for whatever hobbies or interests you have. These communities aren't as active so you won't have a million links to click on each day.

The other suggestions such as learning a new language, or playing puzzle games, are obviously good options as well.

I can recommend Plant Net and Bird Net. They're recognition apps for plants and bird songs respectively.

They've given me a way to be more curious about the natural world around me and get me out of the house and actively engaged in my environment.

It's a bit like an educational alternative to Pokemon Go.

>But I’m not at a point where I want to just toss my phone in the corner and forget about it either.

Why not? it works.

Yeah... I do exactly that fairly frequently (often enough it's a running gag in my family that if you want to call me - call my wife, since I won't have my phone.)

It turns out that your phone is an incredible tool, but only if taken in small doses. In larger doses - it's a nightmare device, actively designed and engineered to suck as much free time from you as possible.

The answer is simple: Stop using it except for explicit reasons.

If I want to dick around with tech - I'll use my desktop/laptop.

My phone is for

- Checking messages twice a day, once in the morning, once in the evening (sometimes more frequently if I'm coordinating with or meeting folks).

- Maps & GPS

- Shared internet connection if I need to use my laptop while out and about

- Unlocking my e-bike

That's it. I'm down to about 5 total apps I open (phone/camera/messages/maps/ebike) and I have never liked my phone more.

5 years ago I was on my phone all the time and miserable. It's much better to lug around a magazine or kindle, or turn on a podcast. Just don't get sucked into the time trap that "social media" is engineered to be. It's literally digital cancer.

Basically - don't open websites or social media apps at all.

>Yeah... I do exactly that fairly frequently (often enough it's a running gag in my family that if you want to call me - call my wife, since I won't have my phone.)

I am a big fan of leaving my phone in a different room if i am coding or in the car if i am building something. Problem is i run a business now and i have to be reachable, in case someone calls.

But i dont use any apps other than maps on my phone nowadays.

>If I want to dick around with tech - I'll use my desktop/laptop.

That is exactly what i do.

The meditations on Withsara are nice, after that my go to free option is Insight timer.

https://www.withsara.com https://www.insighttimer.com

I second this recommendation for Insight Timer. I just use it as a timer that’s nicely customized for meditation, though it has guided talks and recordings that others may find useful.

The timer is MUCH better than the built in iOS timer. It has pleasant (less jarring) bell/gong sounds and customizable presets.

It also keeps track of your sessions which is useful as a subtle nudge to keep a routine practice.

It’s not essential but is nice, useful and free.

> I’m in a battle to minimize social media and related apps influence over my life.

What worked for me is getting into the most stupid internet arguments possible.

The dread associated with seeing the notification indicator show new replies is keeping me off Facebook for now.

I agree about what others are saying about internet access being a pandora's box of stress and depression, so I think creative apps would fit your description a bit better.

Even if you're not the artistic type, you should try Townscaper:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.OskarStalb...

It's a bit like meditating, you lay out these tiny little island villages that add all of the extra little details for you. It helps me cope with the world.

Try Calm. I started using it few weeks back because I was facing sleep issues. It's totally worth the monthly price you know. The speakers are great and the white noise effects work like a charm to calm your senses.

Do they require Bluetooth or can you run a cable if you're willing to buy a dongle?

I use Waking Up for guided meditations (if you can stand Sam Harris). There are a few promo code around Google for a few free weeks. It's a 'how to meditate' course followed by daily meditations, with a bunch of podcast-style interviews and collections of recordings. The course has really helped my shape my meditation practice, and I usually do the daily meditation, which has really helped me focus myself.

(Another guided meditations app is Plum Village - free, but a bit worse quality, with a bit more random order of things.)

I second the recommendation for Waking Up. I previously tried Headspace and Calm, but Waking Up was the only one that stuck for me. I think the difference was the structured nature of the introductory course, good intuitive explanations from Sam Harris and the accompanying "theory" discussions and talks.

That's a good point! I've been reading up on various books Sam and other 'meditators' cite, and he does seem to have a nice approach where he takes 'the best' from various schools of thought and meditation, across Japanese Zazen and Indian Buddhist meditation.

- Inoreader, with few sources such as BBC that don't focus on sensationalism - Lichess

I dropped all the social media except for Twitter, just because I use it really rarely (less than once per day)

Calibre, for me - And then choice books to read. Finished quite a few in the last 6 months, topics ranging from Linux internals, to philosophy, to financial management, to health...

I choose to invest my electronic time in learning more skills or relationships in why something seems to be the way it is.

Recent kick has been practicing the Roman Trivium, then I will tackle the Quadrivium.

And I use an Amazon Fire that my wife bought for me, permanently in airplane mode, as well as night-time (easier on the eyes). I transfer content via USB.

YMMV.

I use ReadEra[1] to read books on my phone. At first it was a quick fix for those times I do not have my ebook reader with me but nowadays it has become my default: having an ebook reader on your phone means that any dead time in the day is an occasion to read. Plus, it is surprisingly good at reading pdfs, which is sometimes useful (technical books, research papers, etc).

[1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.readera&hl...

I did three things that really helped:

1. Delete all social media apps and remove bookmarks of frequently visited sites so I’d have to type them in instead of just clicking.

2. Bought an Apple Watch. This allows me to know when I have a call or text without needing to have my phone next to me all the time. The watch is more limited than a phone and you can’t browse the web on it.

3. I use an app called “OffScreen” which helps set targets for maximum hours or pickups per day and then it nags you if you exceed them.

I`m working in a startup which helps people with focus and productivity. We are building this mobile app - AppBlock, where you can basically set up which mobile apps you want to block and when. It also was reccommended for some people with ADHD issues by therapists and it has some other nice use cases like parental control. Feel free to check it out.

https://www.appblock.app

I would recommend reducing your activity spent in the online world. It's mostly not reflective of anything in real life and the business models of everything that usually gets our attention there is manipulative enough to be a drain on your energy, mental health and sanity. Treat it like another world that is sometimes fun to jump into, but one that should not ever be taken seriously.

Or more specifically if you’re looking for an app to help track and improve your *mental health* I definitely recommend Sensive [1].

You can add a quick log into how your day was, and answer a few questions to record your total mood disturbance score. Very productive and helps you reflect on ways you can be more positive day to day.

[1] https://sensive.xyz

This is how I started in 2014 and I have given this to so many people, and they love it. Start by disabling notifications everywhere except for critical ones that are key to you.

https://brajeshwar.com/2014/missing-step-productivity-activi...

I've just been using Instagram as a place to browse art. I think you can't really unfollow toxic people (you technically can but your brain won't let you). But what you can do is flood it out with positive vibes.

My Instagram feed is full of e-commerce memes, AI generated art, and hand drawn dungeon maps.

It's not exactly useful but it keeps me inspired for the next day.

Plug for a related project I’m working on: mixgrid.io

Pages on any social media associated with the US National Parks (the department and the parks themselves) are very nice looking, promote healthy activities, and are mildly educational (and give you some positive rabbit holes to go down, like identifying plants or birdwatching).

Tangential but what are your favorite e-commerce meme accounts?

There's not that many, it's just a dig at @ecommurz. There were a lot of good tech memes on Facebook, but even the memes don't drown out the negativity.

Good apps:

Pandora: Don't share your channels, just enjoy some tunes.

Non F2P Games: Dream Quest (Great rogue-like). Sentineles of the Multiverse, most all the Inkle games.

Soulver: Great for quick calculations, with units.

Weather: For when you go outside. (Gasp)

Lyft/Uber: Need a ride?

If you are a traveler, airline apps can be handy. Some credit card apps are decent.

Overall, just avoid social media and free to play games, and you'll have a good time IMHO.

I would say none, having a dependence on a app to be "mentally" healthy is just code for addiction and dependence. Removing the addiction to phone usage, and the feedback of notifications is the better way.

This goes in with what I feel about those "headspace" and meditation apps, making "welness" a subscription as a service. Disgusting.

Libby - endless ebooks from your local library Zotero - I save interesting papers I come across to Zotero and then read them when I have free time. C25K - I hate running. I’ve probably restarted this a dozen times over the past 5 yrs but the ease of the first few workouts makes it easier for me to restart when I stop exercising for a few weeks.

I moved all the apps into the app library rather than delete them. That way I have to swipe down and type the name of the app I want. It's been very effective.

Once I took away the icon I forgot the app existed! If I forced myself into not using any apps I'd be thinking about then constantly and using them more

I start my day by checking the kindle daily deals and my ebook wishlist for discounts.

I keep the drafts app on my homescreen and calendar app but I honestly don't use the rest of my home screen apps except pikmin bloom.

Pikmin bloom is amazing. I like that it has a finite number of things you can actually do in the game before you have to get up and walk somewhere to progress. There's no real 'goal' to it. You find seed pods, walk to grow them, level up the pikmin with nectar you get from sending them out on little missions then they get little decorations and you can collect petals. The expeditions bring more seed pods and you grow more pikmin. Then if your out for a walk you can plant flowers. It's honestly so random and simple but I've done so much more walking because of it.

It also has built in journaling which is the longest I've stuck to a journal!

I'm going to be controversial here and say tiktok is an essential for me. But I am fairly disciplined with it and can go days or weeks without opening it because it's not on my homepage. I find that people who don't like tiktok typically had a bad experience with the algorithm which is hugely telling about the person they are - tiktok knows you! What I like about it is I don't have to think about what I want to consume. If Im in the mood for education if I quickly skip past other videos and only watch ones on bird ringing or reptile care then that's all I get for that session. Other times I'll want silly fun videos and sometimes i watch the ones on mental health.

Tiktok has been amazing for me as a form of therapy I've found so many open people on there in the comments as well and it's just nice to know I'm not alone! I've made more progress in my mental health struggles since downloading the app than I have in years of therapy!

I also like that it's connecting all the older and younger generations and at least on my side of Tiktok everyone is welcoming it's a safe space there's no gatekeeping and everyone looks after one another. Plus I get to keep up with the trends as a side bonus!

My wife complains about it, but I use my Chess and Go playing apps quite often. I like being able to adjust play so I win or lose about half the time.

I recommend https://freedom.to to block social media sites during a few long periods a day.

Finding alternatives to screens is probably a good start. You don't need to toss your phone, just put it farther away from you. Have books/magazines/newspapers with easy access as an alternative. Legos/brain teasers/puzzles/rubix cubes, etc are also great.

iPad: Alo Moves, Books, The Economist, Notes

Apple Watch: Fitness

A few years ago I made it my personal goal to pick up my phone only when absolutely necessary and that has done wonders for my mental health. For photos, I have a Canon G7 X and appreciate that it only has one job and it does it very well.

Kindle

This would also be my answer. Put the phone away, preferably out of arms reach, and read a book.

I have an app for cryptic crosswords, and a few puzzle / card games (Venbrux Software, and stuff by Zach Gage, are good). I also turn off almost all notifications (I can get actual text messages and phone calls and my alarm clock and that's it).

RunKeeper's icon makes me remember I run. So I sit with better posture, maybe eat a little better. Because I will be less happy on my next run if I don't. Having that help with my physical health benefits my mental health pretty directly.

Calendar, maps, clock/timer, dictionary.

As for learning: Coursera was good years ago, Stepik might be a good site/app too. I haven't tried edX on mobile.

Duolingo to learn languages. Your Youtube feed can be curated to something almost sensible.

Using attention-consuming apps in a toilet is not healthy (trust me I know).

I sit outside™ on my deck™ app, and practice my guitar™ app. Sometimes I bring my chicken™ app into the house, hug it, feed it snacks, and clean up its poop™ using my paper towel™ and water sprayer™ apps.

I found out there are full audio books on youtube a year ago. I just pick a random book that "sounds good" and play it in the background.

Learn a lot from background noise on various random topics.

Download books and read them. Also academic papers. Between archive.org and libgen you can get almost everything. For books I'll reread forever I buy paper copies.

Calm / Headspace or other meditation apps with settings tweaked to turn off things like streaks and only show notifications for your goals.

The best app I have actually paid for is the Gibson (guitar) App. Playing the guitar with the app or without the apps has made me even happier!

> I’m in a battle to minimize social media and related apps influence over my life.

Get rid of the social media apps. You don't need them. You're lying to yourself if you think that you do. Nobody is going to miss your Instagram or Facebook posts. TikTok is a stupid waste of time and likely algorithmically programmed to make you hate your country (why we let China ban our social media apps and then let them operate in our country I'll never understand) and Reddit is a cesspool of awful, uninformed opinions and if you really need to visit a special interest community there you can just visit that manually. You don't need an account and you don't have anything interesting to say so there's no reason to post.

Instead, fill your home screen with apps with positive goals. For me, this includes having Downdog, btwb, Fitness (Apple), Wikipedia, Maps, my local newspaper, and similar style apps with all red dot notifications turned off.

> But I need to sell things on Facebook marketplace so I'll have to keep my account.

No. Use eBay or Craigslist, sell it at a yardsale, or stop buying stuff you don't need. If you can't stomach that then you delete your actual Facebook account and create a new one specifically for marketplace.

> But how will I stay in touch with all of these groups and influencers that I follow who post entertaining content?

You won't. That's the point. Otherwise stop stressing about being addicted to social media and just embrace it. There's no separation of "people I like to follow" and "I feel addicted". You cannot have one without the other.

> I'm going to lose touch with friends and family.

Good. People come and go, including close friends and family members. And if the primary way you stay in touch is social media, well, you're just lying to yourself about your relationship with them. Let it go. It's unhealthy to cling to past relationships.

> Yea but I do stay in touch but I also like to see their new baby pictures

Well great, instead of seeing all of this stuff beforehand, just see them in person like you regularly do and ask them to show you pictures and then you can sit down and have a meaningful interaction.

Yes I understand that HackerNews and LinkedIn and other sites that I use are also social media. There are degrees of addictiveness. I don't believe you can only "minimize" top social media apps. They do provide value to a lot of people, but if you feel that you're being pulled away from your real life and you're literally posting asking how to win the battle over social media apps and their influence, the best thing you can do is start disengaging with the most addicting ones.

Some people can buy a bag of M&Ms and eat just one and put the bag down. Most people can't.

“Get rid of the social media apps.”

A middle road I’ve used is to restrict myself to the browser versions of social media. The user experience is so frustrating that I don’t want to stick around, I just check on what people are up to once or twice per week.

Put your phone in airplane mode and live it in your pocket. Get a Kindle with you, for the times you want to consume content.

I was opposed to electronic reading of all types having spent much of my life in academic libraries. I'm now on my second Kindle Paperwhite; I gifted the previous generation to a sibling's seven-year old. The Kindle is the only device I take truly everywhere: grocery shopping, strolls in the woods, kayaking & sailing, to bed, to the skatepark. It lives on my body or within three feet. During eight hours of emergency eye surgery for my late dog, the Kindle allowed me to escape the most anxious period of my sheltered life. While waiting at the DMV, the Kindle preserves my sanity. What could otherwise be stressful time becomes an opportunity to enjoy literature or non-fiction and grow my understanding of this world.

I have on my phone:

Google Maps, Waze, LinkedIn, Reddit, a monitoring app for my car and Edge browser. Reddit isn't used frequently.

For me, AllTrails is great for biking/hiking, and lets you share things with some light social media features.

Tumblr, for me and a couple friends atleast, is an app that we can use without feeling like garbage afterwards.

I think Tumblr, just like Twitter, Facebook, etc is all about who you follow. Keeping any of them to just friends you know and care about in real life is going to make them dramatically better than following a bunch of "influencers" or meme accounts.

Not exactly what you’re looking for, but I’ve had fun checking the Oblique Strategies app every now and then.

PlantNET, BirdNET, kiwix a good sensor readout and a map. Use the tool, don't be used by it :)

Libby, if you're a member of your local library and it supports borrowing books through it.

Merlin. The bird identifier app from Cornell. Take some time to stop and smell the birds.

An ebook reader (ideally not an app but a separate device that is only for reading books).

You mentioned unbiased news, I read Reuters daily on my phone and think it fits the bill.

YouTube, of course

edX, Coursera, Brilliant, Khan Academy

Wikipedia

Perfect Ear

Cinco Paus

MtG / Gwent / StS / Faeria / etc

Chess / Poker / Go

Mindustry, Mini Metro

Through The Ages

FL Studio Mobile

The Powder Toy, Poly Bridge

Thought I'd be an outlier here, but the themes in the comments resonate with what my 2 cents would be.

The biggest change was moving to a phone that ditches all Google Play services. This included microG and other variations. The only play services emulator that is running is https://github.com/lukaspieper/Gcam-Services-Provider, which doesn't do anything really but simulate the presence of google services for the google camera to work. You can navigate the source, it's really short. I use it to get the Google Camera working.

I got a Pixel 2 a couple of years back and more recently a Pixel 4a. Then I installed Graphene OS (you can run that or Calyx OS, people might get into heated discussions, but for the purpose of this, you would install either of them with nothing Google related anyway, it's just whatever is completely stock and barebones).

Once you're at this point, you are forced to change your behavior, so the choice goes from "which of these apps should I use as there are SOOOO many of them" to "which apps do I need to add to the phone". After a few months I'm down to:

Signal, Fennec, Aegis, Mullvad, Tutanota, Termux, Unlauncher, Gcam port for my phone, Organic Maps, Syncthing. The background is black, the font is red. A big shoutout to all the persons working hard on all of these applications, do support them through donations or any help you can give them btw.

To get here I had at a point microG, google maps, YT Vanced, Dropbox and the usual slew of things, but I still kept picking up my phone and scrolling mindlessly. I think this is the first thing you should do. I know people might suggest going outside, watching movies, subscribing to your favorite blogs and other things like that, but the reality is, you need to change the association you make with your phone first. This goes for all your devices btw, not just your phone. It needs to revert back to being a tool that obediently sits somewhere away from you and is picked up to perform a specific task and then put down again. Constant entertainment shouldn't be our goal in general, but I digress.

Once you get the change (you can pick up older Pixels pretty cheap used - which is also great for the environment btw!), the next step is to look up 3-4 sources of information (I go with 2 or 3 that lean the same way I do politically and 1 that is the complete opposite) and assign let's say an hour in the morning or one in the evening when you might go through those articles.

I afterwards realized that nothing really changes by me going to several places to look up things. It doesn't matter if you read about something on CNN/Fox/The Guardian/The Atlantic/BBC/Al Jazeera, at the end of the day, it happened and 5-10-20-40 different sources will really talk about the same event. Will this event impact you? Probably not. If it does, i'd recommend you look for a source of news that's closes to you geographically, they might have some more localized insight. Chances are if cycling legislation changes in Berkeley, a local website/paper might have more relevant information than Al Jazeera (which, chances are, won't cover that event anyway). So this was the next step, once you start weaning yourself off of the endlessly repeating news cycle, look for something closer to you. Maybe at this point, you can do a quick read over some of the big topics once a week - how's the humanitarian crisis in Yemen? Is there anything you can do to help (pressure your elected officials/gov/etc, join an NGO and help that way)? This is, in my view, essential to being a good citizen. Once that's done, you can check maybe what happened locally, which will, invariably, impact your life to a greater degree than what happens half-way across the world.

First of all, congrats you're still here, you're doing well!

At this point I check HN a couple of times a day (this is one of those occasions), I look for anything that I'm interested in, try to limit it to 2-3 articles and that's me. This whole process probably took around 5-6 months from start to finish. The slower you go along with it, the better chance things will stick. I feel a lot better now than I did a few years ago when I was one of those people with a couple of screens of apps. I have more time, I look up what I'm interested in, I feel more connected to my local community and my local government. I have time to research a topic I'm interested in with greater focus instead of being devoured by a slew of panic inducing titles or gifs/videos that keep me scrolling endlessly.

We (and here I mean most tech/knowledge workers) are stuck in front of screens all day... We should by now have figured out that when they aren't helping you, they are DEMANDING your attention and they give very little in return. So the best mentally healthy apps are those that you don't use. Those that you uninstall and those that give you time back. Sorry for the long rant, hope it helps!

Wikipedia front page is pretty good. They have a news section too.

"App"reciation. The mentally healthy app. :)

We listen to podcasts. Ologies is fun to listen to.

Anything that's not connected to the internet.

The off button.

Cadoo - great bite sized workouts

I find this value in this one https://www.wakingup.com/ from Sam Harris

Elevate and Peak brain training

This might be a bit different from what you're looking for, but I highly recommend Dynalist.io; it offers every conceivable option for viewing anywhere any way you can imagine and offers 99% of the features for free (subscription plans are for duplicate backup versions as SimpleText on Dropbox or Google Drive, but I've never had any problems with their Amazon Cloud default).

The reason I say this is because I've read quite a few articles in the past on brain science stuff and apparently, the majority of brain anxiety most people encounter is from the brain running repeating cycles to simultaneously address/prioritize things that are on it's periphery radar that "can't be addressed immediately" ...

The simple act of quickly jotting everything down then acts as a sort of "Sudo Purge" and allows the brain to stop wasting cycles subconsciously trying to to address everything you have to deal with.

As an alternative, I find Cultured Code's "Things" app wonderful too.

Both of the services are as intuitive to use as a piece of paper with the option of dragging-and-dropping everything where-ever you want instead of endlessly copying-and-pasting and can be set up to either remain as simple as you wish or in the case of Dynalist.io (it was created by former Workflowy users who's versions they considered had become too full to easily navigate with Workflowy's "1-page is all you need" approach). To that end, Workflowy is great too, and both Workflowy and Dynalist not only allow for weblinks to interesting stuff you find/want to view/research later but Dynalist/Workflowy also have "save to" browser extensions so you can create your own private bookmarking service; in Dynalist you can pre-designate one of your pages as an "Inbox" where everything you clip is automatically saved to along with URLs and brief descriptions.

Dynalist in particular would be an "if I could only have one application" sort of deal ... you can use it for EVERYTHING from an organizer with due date reminders to project management to math (it has mathematical notation) to I believe music notation to coding projects to project management (you can designate pages for collaboration) to writing projects (it has a "word processing view" mode) to keeping notes/lists/recipes/images/whatever.

One of the reasons I would say it's invaluable for mental health purposes is that as you learn things that work for you, whether they be watching certain motivational videos or exercise routines or meditation routines or routines for taking whatever supplements/nootropics/whatever you find useful for your personal mental health, you'll more than likely want to have these routines written down and handy for days when "your brain doesn't feel that great" ... which is where an outliner-type list comes in handy for rapid reference.

Nirvana (sort of an online version of Things) is also pretty good, and if you find that too complex, "TeuxDeux" is great for clearing your head and making minimalist routines/shopping/to-do lists/weekly agendas in a very intuitive way.

Audubon and Merlin Bird ID.

I’ll add “PictureThis” for identifying plants and trees. And a good stargazing app.

I don’t generally like the idea of dragging tech into the enjoyment of nature, but being able to learn about the natural world so easily lights a fire of curiosity about the wild things and wild places that are so good for my mental health.

Intro:

Why are you putting more apps onto the phone when you could live with the ones you have?

Body:

I haven't used Android in years but the high level concepts I'm describing probably apply equally, I've noticed a lot of cross pollination of ideas between them and us "iOS folks"[1][2]

Here are three apps you can use to improve your mental health, by reducing the chances your phone will be hacked and helping you plan your + make predictions.

1.) Notes app + emoji.

I have not used Android on a day to day basis for years, but on iOS, you can "pin" lists. Title the first line with emoji, then the second line with a description since titles are visible if someone forces you to unlock your phone.

Then add password to the notes.[3] A long one, stored in a password manager of your choice, or just write it down and put in in a safe place, like your wallet, or a physical safe. Or memorize it. Or use another technique I don't publish (because some things should be kept esoteric and offline)

Then set up a few lists like "Dailies" (stuff like morning pushups), "Groceries" (stuff you need from the store), Names (first name plus a few details about business contacts, lovers, and/or agents of foreign power).

2.) Clock app

Add a few time zones, and start checking them whenever you see an event in the news.

I currently have UTC, Zurich, London, New York, Toronto, and Tokyo.

(But I also have little mental hacks for each, like "Brussels is London plus one" so I'm not clogging the list with every single city that's on my radar.)

3.) Stock app

Add a few stocks you're interested and currencies. When you read a news article, check the time zone, then check the stocks and currencies. Try to guess if they'll be up or down. Don't record if they were -- you're training yourself to trust your gut.

Conclusion:

If you do these three things every day for a couple years, you'll start to get the same rush you get when you put a bullet in the center of a target, or successfully hack a server for the first when you confirm you were correct... but be careful -- on the rare occasions you're wrong, you'll probably need to smoke a strong indica to recover from the sad feelings you'll incur knowing you were wrong and will have to start the process over tomorrow.

Citations:

[1] I very purposefully chose an iPhone as my comms device. I don't want total control of my phone. I want a set of vetted apps to select from, protected by a strong passphrase so folks can get a warrant, spend millions or billions of dollars to get into my phone, or literally match me up with some catphishing goth girl informant who will probably go white as a sheet and panic when I just look her in the eye, tell her I'm not a serial killer, then go into the bathroom to turn off my phone as she rifles through my backpack.

[2] Ich besitze immer noch keine Schusswaffe, aber ich habe allen Spielern im Spiel gesagt, dass es kein Softplay mehr geben wird. Habt einen schönen Tag, wenn ihr könnt.

[3] https://support.apple.com/guide/security/secure-features-in-...

Extremely unpopular opinion from a software engineer on a tech forum but: mental health is as far away from the Internet as possible.

The more you can integrate the slower pace of nature and natural life, the better your mental health. Your physical presence is optimised for long days of doing fuck all, sitting in the grass, waiting for a deer to pass by.

Still struggling with this, but my long term life goal is living in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with easy access to the unnatural and constantly accelerating flow of information that is the Internet.

This is my future plan too. Make a rooftop solar with integrated battery and buy a high speed starlink.

Did I misread? Wouldn't you want "middle of nowhere with no easy access to the ... Internet"?

No, the Internet is fun, in moderation, and it pays the bills. But then I want to switch off, step outside my front door and sit in the grass, soothed by the sound of insects, birds and wind.

I too did a double take on that, I thought you’d left out “without”. It’s a hard balance huh?

Perhaps the ideal way would be to have your main cabin with no real internet, and a 100 yard path to your tiny work cabin with internet. A physical friction to prevent needless interruption.

One can dream.

> mental health is as far away from the Internet as possible.

I don't think it's the internet, exactly. But anywhere on the internet where your attention has been commoditized.

Basically - if you aren't paying to use the app (and it's not decent open source software), get that fucking cancer out of your device.

Just the basics: messages, calls, GPS, maps, shared connection, photos/videos

those make one awesome, compelling device. Don't ruin it by letting fucking scum companies siphon all your energy and attention away for their own profit (and they are actively trying - complete with statistics and graphs, OKRs & key performance indicators... all painting a picture about how much they can fuck you by stealing all your attention and time)

Turning off notifications - all notifications - helps quite a bit. It's a lot easier to ignore attention-grabbing apps when they can't put their attention grabbing alerts in front of you.

I have an iPad explicitly configured this way, and it's incredibly relaxing to use it.

That does sound pleasant. I wish I could push notifications into a todo list with 1 button / click. I am usually not bothered or distracted by seeing a notification, but having to choose to delete it or act on it immediately is what gets me. I tend to delete everything and keep the interesting ones in the back of my mind for later ("I should check out my gf's new IG post")

I like notifications, and I try to respond to them intentionally. I open apps intentionally (this was easy enough to learn) and close apps intentionally (this was hard to learn). So I am pretty good about actually going into the app to do what I intended to do in response to the notification, and then closing the app. I can reassess afterwards if I want to spend more time in the app and open it back up, but again I create an intention before opening it that has a stopping point.

Intention is the difference between enjoying some funny short videos while sitting in a waiting room, and losing 1-2 hours of your life a day to doomscrolling. And if I could have a filtered list of notifications in a todo somewhere, I can set aside time to update myself on whats new that I care about but arent super important

Reading this from a cabin in the middle of nowhere — However I combine it with regular work and news consumption but it's definitely beneficial to be able to easily step outside for ideation and decision making, or some push-ups in the grass.

> waiting for a deer to pass by

We don't know everything about the era that shaped our bodies, there are a few contradicting narratives:

One being that we were mainly scavengers during the time that our brains grew to this size, especially savoring the marrow of the large bones of the large animals that used to roam the earth before we finished them off and had to look for other sources of highly nutritious foodstuffs. [1]

Another (albeit questioned) is that we hunted prey by running them to exhaustion, so called persistence hunting - a far cry from "waiting for deer to pass by" [2].

Some do argue that the preagricultural societies seemed to have plenty of leisure however [3], so you might be right :-).

But the larger point is if we would be mentally more healthy if we stuck to the old ways of hunting mammoths - or if we are first and foremost adaptable ... I guess my penny is on the latter, within reason.

[1] https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/evidence-f...

[2] https://undark.org/2019/10/03/persistent-myth-persistence-hu...

[3] https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/for-95-percent-of-human...

One thing is for sure though!

They didn't have to pay taxes!

(this is a joke)

Village elder want meat, but they no hunt. Grug no like.

> the larger point is if we would be mentally more healthy if we stuck to the old ways of hunting mammoths

Certainly, if me and my buddies could hunt a whole mammoth our entire tribe could afford to do nothing for a month, as meat lasts a while in cold latitudes.

Sadly, nowadays one can't work very hard for a week and ask the boss to take the rest of the month off.

> The more you can integrate the slower pace of nature and natural life, the better your mental health. Your physical presence is optimised for long days of doing fuck all, sitting in the grass, waiting for a deer to pass by.

I am 1000% on board with this perspective, yet find your prescriptive solution to be a tad askew.

To me, the early internet - especially the pre-broadband days - was very similar to "doing fuck all," waiting for something to come by my screen to engage my focus & attention. In fact, the keyboard-driven computing world was a very pure invocation of the hunter-gatherer mindset. I wrote an article on Medium about this back in 2017, called "Tyrannical Illiteracy." [0]

I have yet to conceive of a more fitting description of today's internet than that.

[0] https://medium.com/@AndrewUnmuted/tyrannical-illiteracy-part...

i still find games to be great for my mental health, even more so now as an adult than as a kid. they are a place where i can make uninformed decisions based on my gut, and experience no negative consequences to my life. i treat every game like a sandbox. dont get sucked into the idea that anything you build or create, or skills you develop, in the game is meant to last.

For example, in an RPG game when I find a powerful 1-time use item - I use it as soon as I can.

There are many factors to optimal decision making, and optimized results are just 1 factor. Games help me explore trade-offs with quick vs long decisions, side effects of over planning, stress and panic effects on decisions, etc.

It carries over into the rest of my life, even work, where I am better able to manage things, like diminishing returns on my efforts, in ways that are very personal to me and my natural tendencies.

> Your physical presence is optimised for long days of doing fuck all, sitting in the grass, waiting for a deer to pass by.

No, your physical presence is optimized for being active most of the time. If you do "long days of doing fuck all", you'll lose bone density, muscle mass and probably gain weight and a mass of health issues. You'll probably experience cognitive decline.

The older you get, the more rapid these issues manifest themselves and the more important constant activity becomes.

I installed a parental control app on my phone to make it automatically turn off at 10:30 PM. It's a small move that made a world of difference and I've been going to sleep much earlier as a result. (The "parent" doesn't need to be an actual parent, it can be a friend too.)

Sorry if this sounds blunt but the question is a bit like "what's the least harmful kind of crack I can get to improve my health?" From the way it's phrased it sounds like you're struggling with mental health and excessive phone/devise usage. The two issues might be related, my advice would be no app.

I’ve been stuck in bed due to medical stuff quite a bit over the last year. My iPhone has essentially preserved my sanity. Like any powerful tool, the user can can choose to make it good or bad.

I learned quite a bit about music theory and writing music over the last year. The iOS music ecosystem is fantastic and affordable.

I’ve been drawing in procreate on my iPad for several years but this also helped pass the hours.

Those are both pretty wholesome activities for something that you describe as “crack”.

> The iOS music ecosystem is fantastic and affordable.

I've been having good experiences recently with Flip for some quick fun jams.

Any suggestions of the "fantastic" kind ?

Depends what kind of music you're interested in making, but Pure Acid [0] is insanely fun. There's a ton of very serious music tools on iOS too, on the host end I'd recommend NanoStudio 2, AUM or Drambo.

[0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pure-acid/id1481283602

While that works for you, pen/paper, or even books and magazines/newspapers are great offline alternatives.

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