Something else to do for two minutes

How does Instead work?

On the gate screen, tap Do something else. Ebb shows three suggestions and says the line it repeats everywhere: two minutes, then decide. Pick one and a 2:00 timer starts. Tap Done when you finish, or after 30 seconds you can mark it as finished early. The day gets a +1, and you decide afterwards whether you still want the feed.

Nothing about the list is a rule. The ideas are small on purpose, so that you can do one in a kitchen, a bus stop or a bed. If none of the three fits, close the gate. That also counts as turning back.

What does a good Instead pick look like?

The best ideas need no screen, no setup and under thirty seconds to start. Putting the phone on a charger across the room, drinking a glass of water, doing ten squats or reading one poem out loud all fit. Each one changes your posture or your location, and that physical change breaks the loop more reliably than another thing on a screen.

Pick the one that matches the time of day. A walk to the end of the street suits a lunch break, while setting out tomorrow's clothes suits eleven at night.

What is free and what is Pro?

The library has 40 ideas. Free shows the first idea of each category, which makes 6. Pro adds the full library and lets you add your own, up to 40 characters each, for habits only you know about, like watering the fern.

What does a two-minute break look like in a real evening?

Say it is 11 pm and you reach for a social app out of habit. The gate shows three suggestions: put the phone on the charger across the room, write down one thing for tomorrow, or drink a glass of water. You pick the second, the 2:00 timer starts, you write one line on a sticky note and tap Done.

After the timer, the question is still open. Some nights you go back to the feed anyway, and the app does not scold you. On others the urge has faded, and you go to bed. Both outcomes are logged honestly, and the log marks the first as a normal gate run and the second as turned back.

Does Instead count toward my streak?

Yes. Closing the gate, choosing Instead or skipping the app after a pass each count as turning back. A day counts toward the streak if you turned back at least once and stayed within your daily passes, or if you had no gate runs and played the daily game. See the gate for how turning back is recorded.

Why two minutes?

The point is short enough to feel doable and long enough for the urge to loosen. Ebb's premise is that most urges fade in the few seconds the app asks for. Two minutes is a bet on that idea, and the app does not claim a research result for it. For the reasoning about urges and friction, read how to stop doomscrolling.

A long task asks for willpower you may not have at 11 pm. A two-minute task asks for very little, and starting is most of the work. Many people find that after two minutes they either keep going with the new activity or no longer want the feed.

What are the limits of Instead?

Instead cannot check that you did the activity, and it will not pick a better idea for you than you would pick yourself. If the three suggestions miss, close the gate. Treat the library as a prompt, and add your own items in Pro for the small habits that only you know about.

Two minutes is also short enough to repeat. If the first idea does not hold you, the log counts the next one as a separate run, and you can see in the week's receipt how many times you chose something else.