The first bank for your time.

Because the problem isn't willpower — it's dopamine. Social media apps are engineered to trigger the same reward pathway as slot machines: variable rewards, infinite scroll, social validation on demand. For people with ADHD, this is especially hard because ADHD involves chronically lower baseline dopamine, which pushes the brain to seek stimulation as a way to self-regulate. Every time you pick up your phone to check Instagram or TikTok, you're not failing at self-control — you're responding to a neurological mismatch between your dopamine system and apps built by teams of engineers specifically to be addictive. Willpower is not a fair fight against that. Ravelo removes the fight entirely: distracting apps are blocked by default, so the decision is already made before the impulse hits.

Ravelo is an iPhone focus app that blocks distracting apps — social media, games, streaming — by default through iOS Screen Time, which enforces the lock at the operating system level with no bypass. To unlock them, you earn Time Currency in two ways: by using productive apps (learning tools, fitness trackers, reading apps, journaling apps), or by running a Focus Session when your real work happens away from the phone — at a laptop, in a gym, or in a notebook. A 45-minute Focus Session adds 45 minutes to your balance, the same 1:1 rate as on-phone productive use. Minutes earned become minutes of access to entertainment. When your balance runs out, the block returns automatically. There is no 'Ignore Limit' button, no grace period, and no loophole — unless you choose to enable Quick Peek, which gives one-minute access to any blocked app without spending your balance.

Ravelo was built specifically for ADHD. Standard app blockers fail for ADHD because they still leave a bypass option — and ADHD impairs the executive function needed to resist a bypass when an impulse fires. Ravelo solves this by removing the choice entirely: iOS-level enforcement doesn't ask for permission, and Hardcore Mode eliminates every override. The Time Currency system also works with ADHD neurology rather than against it. ADHD brains respond best to immediate, concrete rewards — the 1:1 exchange (10 minutes of reading earns 10 minutes of YouTube) creates the instant feedback loop that keeps ADHD users engaged with a system long-term instead of abandoning it after day three.

Apple Screen Time lets you set app limits but always shows an 'Ignore Limit for Today' button — it relies on willpower to enforce itself, which defeats the purpose. Opal and Freedom use a session-based model: you start a focus session, apps are blocked during it, and when the session ends everything opens back up. Ravelo works differently at the structural level: blocked is the default state. Apps stay locked all the time — not just during a session you have to remember to start. Access is something you earn and spend, not something that resets every morning. This makes Ravelo significantly harder to rationalize around, especially for ADHD users who can always find a convincing reason to end a focus session early.

The distracting apps you've blocked return to their locked state automatically via iOS Screen Time. You can't access them until you earn more minutes — by using a productive app or completing a focus session of 15 to 120 minutes. There's no override, no 'just this once,' and no daily reset that clears your debt. The only exception is Quick Peek, which lets you open any blocked app for 1 minute without spending balance — useful for genuinely quick checks. Hardcore Mode removes even this.

Hardcore Mode is a Ravelo Pro feature that removes all remaining bypass options and adds a weekly enforcement layer. It disables Quick Peek, prevents editing the block list, and locks Weekly Goals into hard rules rather than suggestions. Weekly Goals let you set a maximum amount of entertainment time per week — when Hardcore Mode is off, hitting that limit is a nudge you can ignore. When Hardcore Mode is on, hitting your weekly limit means the blocked apps stay locked until the week resets. No override, no exceptions. It's designed for people who know from experience that they'll use any loophole the system allows.

No. Ravelo was designed with ADHD in mind, but the problem it solves — compulsive phone use, doom scrolling, losing hours to social media against your own intentions — affects a large portion of people regardless of diagnosis. If you find yourself picking up your phone out of habit, knowing you should stop but not stopping, Ravelo is built for that. The Time Currency system creates structure that benefits anyone whose relationship with their phone is causing friction in their life.

Ravelo is free to download on the App Store and includes the core Time Currency system with automatic app blocking. Ravelo Pro unlocks unlimited Time Sources, unlimited app blocking, Hardcore Mode, and Weekly Goals — a weekly entertainment budget that becomes a hard enforcement rule when Hardcore Mode is active. Pro is $9.99/month or $80/year ($6.67/month).