How to Stop Doomscrolling: 9 Tactics That Actually Work

Doomscrolling is that thing where you keep scrolling through bad news, outrage or just endless content, even though it's making you feel worse. You know you should stop. You keep going anyway.

That's not a character flaw. Infinite feeds, autoplay and pull-to-refresh are designed to remove natural stopping points, and they're very good at it. So the answer isn't "more willpower". It's changing the environment so stopping becomes easier than continuing.

Here are nine tactics that actually work, roughly ordered from easiest to most committed. You don't need all of them. Pick two or three that fit your life and start there.

1. Notice the trigger, not just the scroll

Doomscrolling rarely starts with a decision. It starts with a trigger: boredom in a queue, a stressful email, lying in bed, a notification, a lull in a meeting.

For one or two days, try a simple experiment: every time you catch yourself opening a social app, ask "What just happened?" You don't have to stop. Just notice. Most people find the same three or four triggers come up again and again, and once you know yours, the other tactics on this list become much easier to aim.

2. Add a pause before opening the app

This is the single most effective tactic we know of, and it's the one research supports most directly.

The idea is simple: put a short delay between the urge and the app. Even a few seconds gives the more deliberate part of your brain a chance to catch up with your thumb.

In a 2023 study published in PNAS, researchers analyzed 280 people using one sec, an app that shows a 10-second pause before a chosen app opens. In 36% of attempts, people closed the app again after the pause, and after six weeks, actual opens of the targeted apps had dropped by 57%.

You can build a pause in several ways:

• An app that adds a pause before opening (one sec does; so does Zuzzo, which we make. In Zuzzo you breathe for 10 seconds and pick why you're opening the app).
• A Shortcuts automation on iPhone that shows an alert when a specific app opens (Shortcuts › Automation › New Automation › App).
• Low-tech: put a sticky note on your phone case that says "why?".

3. Turn off almost all notifications

Every notification is an invitation back into the feed. Most of them aren't urgent.

On iPhone, go to Settings › Notifications, and for each social app either turn off Allow Notifications entirely or keep only direct messages. You can also use Scheduled Summary to bundle non-urgent notifications into one or two deliveries a day.

A good rule: only people should be able to interrupt you, not algorithms.

4. Move apps off your Home Screen

Much doomscrolling is pure muscle memory: unlock, thumb goes to the same spot, feed opens. Breaking that path helps a lot.

• Touch and hold an app, then choose Remove App › Remove from Home Screen. It stays installed, in the App Library.
• On iOS 18 and later, you can also choose Require Face ID or Hide and Require Face ID for any app.
• Put something useful in the old spot: a book app, notes, a podcast player.

When opening Instagram requires a search, you'll find you open it far less on autopilot.

5. Give feeds a schedule, not a ban

Total bans tend to fail because social media isn't 100% bad. Friends post there, groups organize there, and sometimes you genuinely want to look.

Instead of "never", decide "when". For example:

• No social apps before 9:00 or after 22:30.
• Feeds only during lunch.
• No scrolling during work hours.

On iPhone, Settings › Screen Time › Downtime handles one schedule. Zuzzo's nap plans let you set several (Bedtime, Work hours, custom). If you want to understand why one-tap limits are easy to ignore, read Screen Time limits not working?

6. Set a daily limit, then lower it gradually

If you currently spend four hours a day on social media, cutting to 30 minutes overnight is a recipe for a rebound. A gradual plan works better: drop by 30–60 minutes a week until you hit a level you're happy with.

You can do this manually by adjusting a Screen Time App Limit every Sunday. Zuzzo has a built-in 4-week plan that does it for you (for example, from 4 hours a day down to 2).

Not sure what your number even is? Check Settings › Screen Time › See All App & Website Activity, or try our lifetime calculator to see what your current pace adds up to.

7. Make your phone less shiny: grayscale

Color is part of what makes feeds feel rewarding. Switching your screen to grayscale makes them noticeably less appealing.

On iPhone: Settings › Accessibility › Display & Text Size › Color Filters, turn on Color Filters and choose Grayscale. To toggle it quickly, set it as your Accessibility Shortcut (Settings › Accessibility › Accessibility Shortcut) and triple-click the side button.

A 2020 study of college students (Holte & Ferraro, The Social Science Journal) found that switching phones to grayscale reduced their daily screen time. It's a small, reversible change worth trying for a week.

8. Keep your phone out of the bedroom

The bedroom is doomscrolling's natural habitat: you're tired, lying down, and there's nothing else to do. Two simple changes:

• Charge your phone outside the bedroom, and use an inexpensive alarm clock.
• If that's not possible, charge it across the room, out of arm's reach.

If late nights are your main problem, see our step-by-step guide on blocking TikTok at night on iPhone, which works for any app.

9. Replace it, don't just remove it

Doomscrolling usually fills a need: a break, a distraction from stress, a bit of connection, or simply something to do with your hands. If you just remove it, that need is still there and something will fill it, usually the feed again.

Have a short "instead" list ready:

• Text one actual friend instead of watching strangers.
• Read three pages of a book.
• Walk around the block.
• Put on a podcast and tidy one thing.
• Do 60 seconds of slow breathing.

Interestingly, when researchers paid people to deactivate Facebook for four weeks, the participants spent more time on offline activities, including with friends and family, and reported small improvements in well-being (Allcott et al., American Economic Review, 2020). The time you free up goes somewhere; it helps to choose where.

Putting it together: a simple starter plan

If you want a place to start, try this for one week:

Small changes, stacked together, make a big difference, and none of them require you to quit social media.

Be kind to yourself

You're up against some of the best-funded design teams in the world, whose job is to keep you scrolling. Slipping up doesn't mean you failed; it means the feed is doing what it was built to do. The goal isn't perfection. It's spending more of your time on things you actually chose.

FAQ

Is doomscrolling an addiction? "Addiction" is a clinical term, and we're not doctors. What's clear is that many people feel they use their phone more than they want to. If phone use is seriously affecting your mood, sleep or daily life, talk to a doctor or mental-health professional.

What's the fastest way to stop doomscrolling right now? Put the phone in another room for 20 minutes. Then set up one or two of the tactics above so you don't have to rely on in-the-moment willpower next time.

Do app blockers actually help? They can, especially ones that add friction rather than just a dismissible reminder. See our fair comparison of the best app blockers for iPhone.