GoalGate
Stop your phone from killing you
31 followers
Stop your phone from killing you
31 followers
At this point the evidence is clear - screen time hurts your health. GoalGate flips the script, by locking distracting apps until you meet your fitness goals, verified by your devices. 86% of users hit their weekly goals, with a 43% decrease in screen time.
About a year ago I went in to the doctor and was shocked at what they told me. I had always thought of myself as a pretty fit and healthy guy but they were super concerned about my health & prescribed me a blood pressure medication that day.
What I realized was that over time my phone had become my vice, and gradually I had been working out less and spending an unbelievable of time on my phone - at it's peak over 11 hours per day.
Turns out, the science shows that I wasn't alone, and study after study has shown that screen time is impacting our health. Kids who average ≥ 4 h/day of leisure screen time have 68 % higher odds of incident obesity were 2.1 × more likely to meet full Metabolic Syndrome criteria, and each extra hour of screen time raises your risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The bottom line was - I knew that I needed to do something about it.
So with a background in gamification - I set out to build an app that uses the same hooks and triggers that social media companies use to keep us glued to our phones, but for GOOD.
The result - 6 months of long hours of building/beta testing and tweaking, and GoalGate is here.
How it works:
TLDR - Turn fitness into a game by bricking your phone until you hit fitness goals (verified by health data)
When I started to think about why my health had been impacted, I realized a lot of it came down to procrastination, it’s been easy for me to say “I’ll go for a run in 30 minutes”, and 30 turns into an hour, one hour turns into 3 and then I say “ah it’s too late, I’ll do it tomorrow”, and instead I’m glued to my phone playing games, or doomscrolling on Reddit or Instagram or TikTok.
I designed GoalGate so you choose your goal (miles, calories, whatever) and select distracting apps, and then your phone locks those apps until you hit your goal, and importantly only unlocks when your goal is met, verified by Health data (Calories and steps use your phone, other goals require an Apple watch or other health device). I also added a lot of fun surprises and rewards via your animated Sloth buddy Dozer to help stay engaged, and schedules so you don't have to remember to enable locking - it will automatically lock your phone each day at a specific time. Users can also choose between casual, normal and strict modes depending on how many breaks they want to allow themselves.
What users are typically blocking:
I've heard a lot feedback on users blocking the "usual suspects" - Social apps like Instagram, TikTok etc, as well as Mobile Games, but also interesting things like blocking Food delivery (ex: no Uber eats until goal is hit) Online Shopping like Amazon, as well as a surprising number of users blocking Work apps - personally I was inspired by this and set a schedule to block slack and email til I get my morning walk in.
Results - I’ve noticed it has dramatically increased my training consistency, and I recently completed my first half-marathon trail run! I’ve also cut my screen time down from 11 hours a day to 3, and most importantly - I'm off the blood pressure medication.
Maybe what I’m most proud of is that 86% of beta users are hitting their weekly fitness goals with a 43% decrease in screen time.
Anyway thanks for reading all this. I've put a lot of love into this app, and I really hope it helps you as much as it helped me ❤️