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Wish you looked at your phone less? Then you’ve probably heard of Brick, a $59 device that claims to help you block distractions. You tap your phone against the Brick when you want to avoid distractions—the bundled software stops you from opening whichever apps you’ve decided you need to stop doomscrolling.
The idea is to add a physical barrier between you and apps like Instagram—if you want to scroll, you need to physically get up, find the Brick, and tap it. It’s a good idea, and implemented in a way that makes it easy to get started. But what if you don’t want to buy a chunk of plastic?
Good news: the Brick is basically just an NFC chip, not that different from the one in your credit card or passport. You can buy a blank NFC chip for a dollar. Even better, free applications can use these chips to block distractions, exactly like the Brick. Or, if you prefer, these apps also support QR codes, meaning all you need is a printer. Here are two free distraction-blocking apps—complete with physical barriers—for iPhone or Android.
Best for iPhones: Foqos
The oddly named Foqos is a free, open source app for iOS by Canadian developer Ali Waseem. Many open source apps lack polish, but not this one—it’s easy to configure the necessary permissions, set up a profile, and start blocking distractions.
While creating a new profile, you first choose which physical object you want to use to start and stop your blocking sessions. The two most popular options are NFC tags (there’s a handy link to buy some in the app) or a QR code. But you can also block using a daily schedule, if you prefer, or by scanning any barcode. The barcode option is nice because you don’t need to buy or print anything—scan the code on your favorite book, beverage, or anything else you keep around the house.
Foqos can block you from managing apps while a profile is running. This means you can’t just delete Foqos to get around a block you set up, which is exactly what someone fighting against their own urges needs. You can allow a limited number of breaks, if you want.
I’ve been using this to break my Reddit habit and can report that it works. I keep a printed QR code inside a cabinet, far from the couch where I tend to scroll. It creates just enough friction that I can finish reading a book instead. The application has an excellent privacy policy—no data leaves your device.
Best for Android: Switchly
Foqos is sadly iOS-exclusive, and I couldn’t find an Android equivalent that’s quite as polished. But Switchly, by Vienna-based developer Saltyy, stands out as one of the more feature-complete apps I tested. You will need to spend some time fiddling to get it set up, granted, but once you do, you’ll find it every bit as flexible as Foqos.
To get started, open the app, which you can install from Google Play. A wizard will guide you through the relevant permissions, then talk you through setting up your first profile. You will need to read everything carefully, because it’s a little bit tough to navigate the first time. You can block apps and URLs. You can use an NFC chip or a QR code to trigger locking and unlocking. You can also block based on a schedule; Premium users can trigger when connected to a particular Wi-Fi network, or when a certain Bluetooth device is nearby.
If you’d rather not block Instagram entirely, but never want to see a Reel again, good news: there’s support for blocking particular features inside certain apps. The feature is labeled as experimental, but worked well in my testing.
There’s a lot of flexibility, but Android’s open nature means how well it works depends in part on your phone model. The developer acknowledges this. Also, you don’t need the Premium version—the free tier offers plenty of features for most people.
Another application Android users should check out is Lock. This app is more polished than Switchly, but only supports NFC chips. Give it a try if Switchly doesn’t quite work the way you like.
Distractions don’t just live on your phone. We’ve written about how to block websites on your computer, with multiple free options. But let’s face it: the phone is the ultimate distraction machine. Learn to control your impulses there.
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Slate Auto Fastback SUV
Tisha Johnson is a rarity in the car world: an automotive design leader who is not a man. Women are sometimes put in charge of the interiors or the materials, but few get to shape the whole look of a vehicle. As head of design at the EV-maker Slate, Johnson does. The pickup truck version of its EV starts at just under $25,000, making it the cheapest pickup on sale in the US, electric or not. Trouble is, cheap products are usually a compromise, and compromises rarely inspire affection. Johnson’s Slate, however, has won design awards, not just praise for its price tag.
“We didn’t want [Slate] to be a jerk,” Johnson says, “or look like a beast on the road.” That thinking shows in the truck itself—not just in its modular, add-on-friendly design (pictured here in its Fastback guise), but in the fact the EV was designed to be loved. Strong shoulders and approachable round headlamps were favored over macho arrowed surfacing. “The attraction that draws you to Slate is based on something that is lasting from inside out. It’s a deeper connection,” Johnson says. Some 180,000 reservations and counting for the Slate, along with those awards, seem to more than prove her point.
Away The Carry-On: Aluminum Edition
Away was founded in 2015 by entrepreneurs Jen Rubio and Steph Korey, both with backgrounds at the eyewear maker Warby Parker. In its first year, Away generated $12 million in sales and sold more than 100,000 stylish, reasonably priced suitcases. It has been an impressive rise, and the Softside Carry-on currently tops WIRED’s best buy list. Here however, we’ve chosen the aluminum version of the company’s handsome roll-aboard that’s built tough but perfectly sized for the overhead bin. It has a 32-liter capacity, dual TSA locks, 360-degree wheels, and an internal compression system. The signature hidden laundry bag remains a brilliant accoutrement.
Jelenew Mont Blanc Ultralight Long Windproof Jacket
Cofounded by six-time cycling world champion Marion Clignet, Jelenew combines female-specific articulated shaping, recycled nylon, mesh ventilation and an adjustable hem in a windproof shell that packs into a 6.3 x 9.8-inch bag. Clignet brought elite racing experience directly into the brand’s development, with the fit shaped around women’s proportions rather than scaled down from men’s clothing. This particular jacket uses 94 percent recycled nylon, a PFAS-free water-repellent treatment, UV protection, and mesh ventilation. Generous waist pockets and adjustable drawstrings add practical detail.
TaylorMade Kalea Gold Driver
Light, easy to launch, and forgiving, Kaela has been designed for women who want more performance than they can get from hacking a set of men’s clubs. Principal product-development engineer Michelle Penney helped lead the development of the range, with input from female TaylorMade employees, players, and and dedicated women’s advisory board. The final design takes into account the key differences in women’s swing profiles. The 460 cc carbon driver is 44 inches long, with 11.5- or 13.5-degree lofts and a lightweight 47-gram shaft intended to help generate speed without making the club harder to control.
Natural Cycles NC° Band
Cofounded by CERN physicist Elina Berglund Scherwitzl, who helped discover the Higgs boson, Natural Cycles makes the world’s first FDA-cleared birth-control app. Its screenless NC° Band syncs its health readings to the app. Wear it on your wrist while you sleep and it tracks your temperature, heart rate, and movement during the night, then automatically syncs all that data to your phone in the morning. Those numbers are fed into the app’s algorithm to give you accurate—Natural Cycles claims an impressive 93 percent accuracy—daily fertility guidance. A recently announced Whoop partnership helps strengthen both brand’s offerings too.
Adafruit Pimoroni Badgeware Badger
Ladyada, aka Limor Fried, became the first female engineer to appear on the cover of WIRED in April 2011, just six years after she founded Adafruit from her MIT dorm room. Her alias was inspired by 19th-century English mathematician and computing pioneer Ada Lovelace, which in turn provided inspiration for the brand’s name. Fried has grown Adafruit into a 100 percent woman-owned force in open-source electronics, making components, tools, and educational kits that lower the barrier to coding and hardware hacking. The company’s range spans beginner-friendly boards, wearable controllers, and touchscreens, alongside quirky maker gear such as the pictured programmable, wearable e-paper name badge.
Raide Women’s TrailTech Cargo Tank
More than just another running top, this multifunctional design combines an unpadded sports bra, a vest, and much of the carrying capacity of a small hydration pack in a single 4.6-ounce layer. Five well-positioned pockets hold up to 30 fluid ounces of water, a phone, your rain shell, and up to six fuel gels, all while keeping the load close to your body to help minimize bounce. Laser-perforated chest panels add ventilation, and the fit is designed around female anatomy rather than adapted from a men’s cut. It is a neat solution for runners who want to go the distance without adding layers on layers.
Vacheron Constantin Overseas Self-Winding
There was a time, not so long ago, when all serious timepieces had two clear traits. They were massive—we’re talking over 48 mm here, which fine if you have Schwarzenegger-sized forearms but useless for those who don’t—and they were aimed just at men. Women’s watches would have comparatively basic mechanical movements, or be quartz powered and covered in jewels.
Thankfully, general watch size trends have swung back the other way, and now small- and mid-size pieces are very much in demand. This means women with a serious eye for horology now have some truly excellent choices. This new Vacheron is a perfect example: Clocking in at 34.5 mm, this Overseas will suit both men and women very well in either stainless steel or pink gold. It’s a nearly exact shrunken version of the 41 mm model, and nothing has been dropped in the downsizing apart from the outer seconds track on the dial. The quick-release bracelet, two extra quick-change straps, 40-hour power reserve, and sapphire caseback are all present.
Dreame Miracle Pro
AI is drying hair now, or more specifically, adjusting temperature, heat, and airflow automatically. Dreame’s dryer also includes a conditioning essence atomizer and red light therapy to take extra care of your scalp. The 1,400-watt dryer monitors temperature 1,000 times per second to keep the airflow ultra consistent. The dryer also comes with four magnetic attachments: nozzles for styling, smoothing, and defrizzing, plus a diffuser. Snap one on, and the Miracle pro senses which one you’ve attached and adjusts the dryer’s power and heat for the best possible results.
Music Man St. Vincent HHH
Annie Clark, aka art-rocker St. Vincent, sketched the original shape for her signature guitar using angles that combine midcentury retro-futurism with the bold triangular tuxedo worn by avant-garde performer Klaus Nomi. She then worked through around 20 prototypes to get the weight, balance, and feel for the design just right. Despite the sharp lines, the body is heavily beveled with an exceptionally narrow waist, and Clark explicitly designed it to sit comfortably against a woman’s torso. Built from lightweight okoume wood, it weighs around 7.5 pounds, with a roasted maple neck that offers easy access to the upper frets (where the shredding happens). The three custom DiMarzio mini-humbuckers are controlled by a five-way selector.
KiwiCo STEM Kits
Chemical engineer and mother-of-three Sandra Oh Lin founded KiwiCo to make hands-on science, engineering and creative projects fun, practical, and easy to tackle at home. It offers kits for babies, kids, teens, and adults, with age-appropriate builds (and yes, we wouldn’t be surprised if the kids’ stuff was more advanced than the a
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