Scrolling is usually mindless.

This is what happens when you don’t even remember when you fell down the rabbit hole of scrolling. A notification sound pings on your phone. You think it is important. You immediately open your phone. And get sucked up into the digital world.

Next time you see the clock and voila! And just like that, hours have gone by without your conscious realization.

I have spent countless hours like this on my phone. It is extremely unproductive. I feel worse and guilty afterward, thanks to the digital well-being feature in my phone also reminds me of how much time I am spending on my phone every week.

However, I found one way to at least put a brake on this activity.

It is an app called One Sec.

This app gives you a 10-second blank screen asking you to take a deep breath before you open your favorite/scrolling-prone app. You need to add these apps to the One Sec beforehand.

So, every time I open YouTube or Twitter, it asks me to take a deep breath and ask, Do you really want to open YouTube/Twitter? It introduces a pause just before the mindless scroll and asks you to make a choice. You can either continue to the app by clicking Yes, I want to open “app” or you can come out.

And I must say it has been quite effective. I have often found myself having a more conscious awareness of scrolling once I have made a choice before opening the app.

In fact, it can become too annoying too soon as well.

But, I like this idea of a mindful pause before the mindless scrolling.