The Off Switch is a simple card and app that helps you actually focus, finish your work, and still have a life outside your screen, without losing the parts of your phone you rely on for studying and staying in touch.
On this page, you will see how it works, example routines you can copy, and what students usually notice after a few weeks.
The Off Switch
× Students
What you’re trying to do
If this sounds like you, you’re in the right place.
1. Concentrate long enough to finish readings, problem sets, or essays.
2. Go to lectures and seminars and actually take in what is being said.
3. Stop letting “I’ll just check my phone” eat your revision time.
4. Sleep better instead of scrolling in bed.
5. Make room for friends, hobbies, and rest, not just coursework and screens.
Where it starts to go wrong
Over time, heavy, hard-to-control phone use is linked with higher rates of stress, anxiety, and low mood in students.
1. In lectures, you open your phone “just to check something” and end up half following the class and half in your messages or socials.
2. At home, the phone sits on your desk, lighting up with notifications while you try to study.
3. A quick five-minute scroll between tasks keeps turning into thirty minutes and a spike of anxiety.
4. Group chats, Discord, and social media are always there, so your brain never fully switches off from other people’s drama.
5. Late-night scrolling in bed wrecks your sleep, which makes lectures and revision the next day even harder.
How The Off Switch helps
Think better
The Off Switch creates a clear difference between Study Mode and Free Time, even though they both live on the same device. Cutting down on background distractions from non-essential apps supports concentration and learning. Reducing late-night and constant phone use is associated with better sleep, steadier mood, and improved well-being overall.
Live easier
You choose which apps go Off and which stay On for each situation (socials, games, and shopping Off; notes, calendar, and email On, for example). One tap on the Off Switch card quiets your chosen apps until you tap again, with no need to fight through multiple settings menus. You can create different modes like Lecture Mode, Library Mode, and Sleep Mode, then reuse them all term. The card is a physical object you can place by your laptop, in your pencil case, or next to your bed, making the routine easy to remember. The core features are completely free, so you’re not signing up for yet another subscription on a student budget.
Feel calmer
Instead of feeling like you “just have no discipline,” you have a simple system that makes the good choice the easy one. You’ll feel more pride in handing work in on time and more freedom to actually relax afterwards. Less background guilt creeps in from seeing everyone else’s highlight reel all day and night. You go into exams with a calmer head because you’ve had proper focus blocks and proper breaks, not just fractured time.
Routines that work well for students
Lecture or seminar mode
When: During in-person teaching and tutorials.
Apps off: Social media, games, personal messaging, email, news, any non-teaching apps.
What stays on: Calendar, notes app, PDF viewer, learning platform, browsers for course materials.
How it helps: Keeps you in the room and taking in the content, which is tied to better marks and less time re-teaching yourself from scratch later.
Library deep study block
When: Library or study sessions of 60–120 minutes.
Apps off: Socials, games, non-essential chat, streaming, shopping, news, non-urgent email.
What stays on: Notes, reference manager, browser for research, spelling tools, calculator, cloud storage, music or white noise if that helps.
How it helps: Gives you long enough stretches of focus for reading, writing, and problem solving, while still letting you access what you actually need for the work.
Assignment sprint
When: When you block out time to work on one essay, project, or lab report.
Apps off: Everything that does not directly relate to this assignment.
What stays on: Document editor, research apps, citation tools, calendar, collaboration tools if you’re working in a group.
How it helps: Reduces the urge to “just check something else” and then lose your thread. You get a clear run at the work and can then properly stop.
Night-time wind-down
When: From a set time in the evening until you go to sleep.
Apps off: Social media, video, games, all academic platforms, news.
What stays on: Calls from favourites, alarms, music, sleep sounds, journalling apps, e-readers if that’s calming.
How it helps: Limits blue-lit, emotionally spiky content late at night. Better sleep is strongly linked to better mood, concentration, and academic performance.
Common questions
Won’t I just ignore this like every other focus tool?
Most digital wellbeing tools live inside the same device that is distracting you. The Off Switch adds a physical step. You have to go to your card to bring apps back, which gives your brain a moment to ask, “Do I really want to do this right now?”
What if I need my phone to look things up during class?
You can keep your notes app, browser, and learning platform On while everything unrelated is Off. The point isn’t to ban your phone, it’s to stop it hijacking your attention for things that are not about the class.
Can I still be reached by family or flatmates?
Yes. You choose what counts as essential. Many students keep calls and one messaging app for close people on, while all the “scroll” apps are Off.
My timetable is chaotic. Do I need perfect routines?
Not at all. The card works with flexible lives. You can make a small set of modes such as Lecture, Study, and Sleep and tap into whichever one fits the moment, even if your schedule changes each week.
Does this mean I should never use my phone for fun?
Definitely not. Phones are part of how we relax, connect, and create. The point is to protect certain moments so your phone doesn’t eat the time you wanted to spend on your degree, your sleep, or your real life. Once your work or rest block is done, you can tap again and enjoy your apps on purpose.