Why time limits for apps don’t work

[At least not if you’re me.]

I am happily addicted to the iOS game Flow Free, with an 863-day streak. I’m so addicted that I added a fifteen-minute daily limit on my phone (Settings > Screen Time > App Limits) . But it didn’t work.

Flow Free offers daily puzzles (that take a couple of minutes), a weekly set of thirty puzzles (that take more minutes), and Free Play, a category that offers virtually unlimited play, with thousands of puzzles of ever-greater complexity. Here’s the problem: with a fifteen-minute daily limit for Flow Free, I used those minutes, mostly in Free Play, and when the choice popped up to stop, take another minute, or take another fifteen minutes, I took the fifteen. Why not? I mean, the phone was offering. I didn’t even have to put another quarter in.

But with the fifteen-minute limit turned off, I feel no impetus to try Free Play. I don’t think about it, and it doesn’t occur to me that I have minutes waiting to be used (and then more minutes after those minutes have gone by). So I’m happy doing daily puzzles and weekly puzzles. As one of my granddaughters would say, that’s about it.

When is a time limit for an app not a time limit? For me, it’s when it’s turned on. I would be interested to know if anyone reading has had the same lack of success with time limits for apps.