Put your phone face down. We count how long you go without touching it.
Turn your phone face down
The timer starts when it’s face down.
Linked: your computer shows the clock.
Put it back face down to keep going.
Phone Pickup Counter
This phone pickup counter counts every time you pick up your phone while you study or work: press start, lay the phone face down, and each lift counts as one pickup. When you finish, you see your pickups and how much of the session was phone-free.
It’s free, with no app to install and no signup.
Phone pickups get caught during your study session
Your iPhone or Android phone already counts pickups, but only as one total for the whole day.
This phone pickup counter checks just your study session or work block, so you see how often the phone pulled you away while you were trying to focus.
Free. No signup. Nothing to install.
On average, students studying at home got distracted in under 6 minutes
Researchers watched 263 middle school, high school and university students during a 15-minute study session at home.
On average, they spent only 65% of those 15 minutes actually studying. The rest of the time they were distracted, most often by social media and texting.
Source: Rosen, Carrier and Cheever, Facebook and texting made me do it: media-induced task-switching while studying, Computers in Human Behavior, 2013.
See how your own session compares.
Your record on this device
Finish a session and your totals show up here. They are stored in this browser only.
- Sessions
- 0
- Phone-free time
- 0 min
- Times caught
- 0
- Longest without touching it
- 0 min
Every pickup counts once
Lifting the phone for more than half a second counts, and so do locking it and switching to another app. Each pickup counts once, however long you hold the phone.
Pick it up and you get a CAUGHT stamp, a sound and a live timer showing how long you’ve been on your phone. Put it back face down to continue.
Free. No signup. Nothing to install.
Pickup marks on the ring show when each one happened
Each pickup leaves a mark on the timer ring at the minute it happened, so you can see where in the block they landed.
Pick a 25, 50 or 90-minute block, or count up from zero with no end time.
Free. No signup. Nothing to install.
This phone pickup counter ends with your phone-free time on a card
The big number is your session time minus the time the phone was in your hand.
Below it, you see your pickups and your longest phone-free stretch.
Save it as an image or share it.
Free. No signup. Nothing to install.
- Session length
- 50:00
- In your hand
- 08:48
- Picked up the phone
- 9
- Longest without touching it
- 11:20
Motion readings from your phone never leave your browser
- The motion sensor only tells the page whether the phone is face down. Each reading is checked in your browser and dropped. None are saved or sent.
- No sign-up and no email. Visits are counted with Google Analytics, which never sees your timer or your phone.
- Your totals sit in this browser’s storage. Clear your browsing data and they are gone.
- The end card is made on your device. Nobody sees it unless you save or share it.
Read exactly what the site stores and loads.
No account. Nothing to install.
This timer counts pickups and keeps your phone in reach, with nothing to install
| Caught Scrolling | Regular study timer | App blocker | Phone in another room | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Counts your phone pickups | ||||
| Shows your phone-free time | Some show screen time | |||
| Nothing to install | ||||
| Phone stays in reach for emergencies | ||||
| Physically stops you using apps |
Free. No signup. Nothing to install.
How it works, in three steps
-
Open the timer on your phone
Studying on a computer? Scan the QR code shown with the timer to open it on your phone. Pick a 25, 50 or 90-minute block, or a custom one, then press start.
-
Keep the phone face down
The clock starts when you put your phone face down. Every time you pick up the phone, it counts as a catch.
-
Press Finish
You get your phone-free time, your pickups and your longest stretch without touching your phone, on one card.
Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for.