After realizing I spent six hours on my phone after getting home from school, I downloaded the Opal screen time app. My phone addiction was out of control. Since I downloaded it, I have essentially gotten years of my life back. 

I downloaded the app and inputted my daily screen time average. At the time, it was seven hours a day. Opal told me that if I stayed on that path, I was on track to spend a total of 32 years on my phone. Yikes. 

Opal lets users rank their apps on a seven-point scale from most distracting to most productive. Then, it blocks them accordingly with snooze opportunities for up to 15 minutes. Users can set up scheduled blocks. For example, I have all of my distracting apps blocked every weekday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. This, in the best-case scenario, encourages me to start my homework at 6 p.m. instead of pushing it off. More realistically, it forces me to procrastinate with something a little more productive, like talking to my family or FaceTiming a friend. 

Opal provides detailed breakdowns of your screen time usage, accounting for every minute of your day. These analytics show how much time you have spent offline and give you a daily focus score out of 100. The app lets you create a profile and add users to your contacts. You can then see a leaderboard of block session length. Opal keeps users motivated with these leaderboard competitions and with gemstone rewards for achievements.   

I implore anyone who wishes to minimize their screen time to give Opal a try. Opal has enabled me to lower my average screen time by 31% and has helped me to regain 10 of my 32 lost years!