We’re Wasting Our Most Valuable Resource (The Hidden Cost of Free Time)
Never in human history have we had this much free time. And yet, something feels off. Our ancestors spent their days chatting around fires or working the land, while we scroll endlessly through feeds designed to steal our attention.
Understand
Nov 6, 2025
8 min
A Brief History of Free Time
Back when humans were all nomadic hunter-gatherers, idleness was a constant part of daily life. Yes, it’s surprising.
To sum it up: we slept, we chatted, and occasionally, we went hunting. But here’s the nuance: free time (outside of sleep and hunting) was entirely dedicated to the group.
During that long Paleolithic era, there wasn’t really a concept of individual existence—fulfillment came from being part of the social group.
Chit-chatting, a significant part of the day, was what helped integrate each person into the collective.
Idleness back then wasn’t a personal or optional choice; it always took place within the strict and binding rhythms and rituals of the tribe.
Then came the Neolithic period—and with it, sedentarism.
Life stopped revolving around idleness. Now, there was farming and livestock. Work became intertwined with life, and rest became much rarer.
From that point on, free time became a scarce resource that would always need to be managed. The appearance of leisure coincides with its rationing: it reflects and reinforces social hierarchy. Leisure becomes a symbol of power—and a tool for maintaining it.
Fast forward.
In the 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution, people worked an average of 4,000 hours per year.
Today, that number is around 1,400 hours.
In La crise de l’abondance, François-Xavier Oliveau shares this striking comparison:
In 1841, people spent 70% of their waking life (excluding sleep) working.
In 2015, only 12%.
Some quick reasons: the 35-hour workweek, retirement, weekends, and gradually increasing life expectancy. As a result, since the 20th century, we’ve seen a true explosion of free time.
And yet, Olivier Babeau makes this troubling observation, which is the central thesis of his book:
“Humanity has never had so much free time in its history, and yet it has never used it so poorly.”
A Brief History of Free Time
Back when humans were all nomadic hunter-gatherers, idleness was a constant part of daily life. Yes, it’s surprising.
To sum it up: we slept, we chatted, and occasionally, we went hunting. But here’s the nuance: free time (outside of sleep and hunting) was entirely dedicated to the group.
During that long Paleolithic era, there wasn’t really a concept of individual existence—fulfillment came from being part of the social group.
Chit-chatting, a significant part of the day, was what helped integrate each person into the collective.
Idleness back then wasn’t a personal or optional choice; it always took place within the strict and binding rhythms and rituals of the tribe.
Then came the Neolithic period—and with it, sedentarism.
Life stopped revolving around idleness. Now, there was farming and livestock. Work became intertwined with life, and rest became much rarer.
From that point on, free time became a scarce resource that would always need to be managed. The appearance of leisure coincides with its rationing: it reflects and reinforces social hierarchy. Leisure becomes a symbol of power—and a tool for maintaining it.
Fast forward.
In the 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution, people worked an average of 4,000 hours per year.
Today, that number is around 1,400 hours.
In La crise de l’abondance, François-Xavier Oliveau shares this striking comparison:
In 1841, people spent 70% of their waking life (excluding sleep) working.
In 2015, only 12%.
Some quick reasons: the 35-hour workweek, retirement, weekends, and gradually increasing life expectancy. As a result, since the 20th century, we’ve seen a true explosion of free time.
And yet, Olivier Babeau makes this troubling observation, which is the central thesis of his book:
“Humanity has never had so much free time in its history, and yet it has never used it so poorly.”
A Brief History of Free Time
Back when humans were all nomadic hunter-gatherers, idleness was a constant part of daily life. Yes, it’s surprising.
To sum it up: we slept, we chatted, and occasionally, we went hunting. But here’s the nuance: free time (outside of sleep and hunting) was entirely dedicated to the group.
During that long Paleolithic era, there wasn’t really a concept of individual existence—fulfillment came from being part of the social group.
Chit-chatting, a significant part of the day, was what helped integrate each person into the collective.
Idleness back then wasn’t a personal or optional choice; it always took place within the strict and binding rhythms and rituals of the tribe.
Then came the Neolithic period—and with it, sedentarism.
Life stopped revolving around idleness. Now, there was farming and livestock. Work became intertwined with life, and rest became much rarer.
From that point on, free time became a scarce resource that would always need to be managed. The appearance of leisure coincides with its rationing: it reflects and reinforces social hierarchy. Leisure becomes a symbol of power—and a tool for maintaining it.
Fast forward.
In the 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution, people worked an average of 4,000 hours per year.
Today, that number is around 1,400 hours.
In La crise de l’abondance, François-Xavier Oliveau shares this striking comparison:
In 1841, people spent 70% of their waking life (excluding sleep) working.
In 2015, only 12%.
Some quick reasons: the 35-hour workweek, retirement, weekends, and gradually increasing life expectancy. As a result, since the 20th century, we’ve seen a true explosion of free time.
And yet, Olivier Babeau makes this troubling observation, which is the central thesis of his book:
“Humanity has never had so much free time in its history, and yet it has never used it so poorly.”
Your phone, your rules. Block on command and own your time.
For 30min
Everyday
On weekends
During workhours
From 10 pm to 8 am
For 7 days
All the time
Your phone, your rules. Block on command and own your time.
For 30min
Everyday
On weekends
During workhours
From 10 pm to 8 am
For 7 days
All the time
Your phone, your rules. Block on command and own your time.
For 30min
Everyday
On weekends
During workhours
From 10 pm to 8 am
For 7 days
All the time
The 3 Types of Free Time
A lifespan of 80 years equals 29,200 days, or 700,800 hours. Doesn’t seem like much when you look at it that way. In recent decades, we’ve fought hard for more free time in our lives—so much so that it now dominates.
The question is: how do we use this discretionary time, this time that’s truly ours?
Tic Tac.
It’s a fundamental question, yet one rarely discussed publicly: there’s no leisure policy, no education around leisure.
We don’t learn how to value it. Is it a poisoned gift? Fun fact: at the beginning of François Mitterrand’s presidency, a Ministry of Free Time was created. It lasted three years (1981–1984).
André Henry, the first minister, was tasked with “educating people on free time, promoting creative leisure, and helping individuals master their time.”
Granville – “Ministère du Temps Libre” just opened (It’s also a bar in Normandy.)
This discretionary time, as Olivier Babeau defines it, falls into three categories that have emerged over the centuries:
1. Time for Others
This includes all social, friendly, and family activities—the time of belonging to a group, to society. This was even more central in the past when collective and/or courtly life dominated.
2. Time for Oneself
In Ancient Greece, this was skholè, or studious leisure. It included activities that helped one grow, improve, and become a better citizen.
Only the elite had access to it—thanks to their slaves, who freed up their time…
Today, it broadly refers to any activity that improves us, empowers us, or teaches us something.
Examples: reading, exercise, meditation, and cultural or artistic pursuits.
3. Time Outside Oneself
These are activities that take us away from ourselves. They’re passive, fleeting, and don’t help us grow or connect with others.
This is symbolized today by endlessly scrolling Instagram or binge-watching Netflix. We’re just passing the time.
Of course, these are ideal types—there’s overlap. For example, watching a show with friends. Or an insightful documentary on YouTube.
But our era has seen a growing imbalance between these three types of activities, elevating one above the rest. Free time today is being devoured by time outside oneself, which the author calls entertainment.
He uses this word deliberately—it comes from the Latin divertere, meaning “to divert.” Blaise Pascal described entertainment as something that “flees the essential, tries to escape the self.”
Entertainment is an ogre, devouring everything: as it eats away at our available brain time, the time dedicated to others or self-improvement shrinks.
And this has consequences.
(A less friendly ogre than this one.)
The Entertainment Takeover
With technology—and its armed wing, the attention economy—entertainment now rules our leisure time.
Thanks to its dizzying power of attraction. At our fingertips is an all-you-can-eat digital buffet, with no time or access limitations.
To give you a sense of scale: watching all the new videos uploaded to YouTube in a single day would take 82 years without breaks.
The seductive power of entertainment lies in our psychological vulnerabilities: the search for minimal effort and instant pleasure is deeply wired into us.
Like moths to a flame, we’re drawn in—and tech giants exploit these weaknesses to capture more and more of our time.
Here are some 2023 app usage stats (per French user, monthly):
The average French person spends 60% of their free time in front of a screen. Of course, we all need moments of relaxation. The problem lies in excess and imbalance.
Despite the sharp rise in free time, we realize its value doesn’t lie in quantity—but in quality. Too much entertainment, turbocharged by attention-grabbing technologies, leads to passivity.
A kind of trance becomes the norm—as I described in the edition on Netflix and binge-watching. Most of all, we develop a constant craving for ease and comfort. This contributes to disillusionment and apathy.
A lack of meaning stems from leisure that builds nothing.
“Children of abundance no longer find meaning in work, nor in leisure.” — Olivier Babeau
In contrast, studious leisure, focused on personal growth and improvement, is what brings meaning—what nourishes the soul.
Less attractive in the moment, but a foundation for a more balanced and fulfilling long-term life.
Aldous Huxley, in Brave New World (1932), already warned us. Neil Postman put it this way:
Orwell feared those who would ban books. Huxley feared there would be no need to ban books, because no one would want to read them. Orwell feared we’d be deprived of information. Huxley feared we’d be drowned in so much of it, we’d become passive.
Free time is serious business.
A Catalyst for Inequality
“Success depends more on how we spend our free time than how we spend our work life.” — Olivier Babeau
The author rejects the classic view that work is inherently alienating and leisure inherently liberating. Managing this discretionary time well is crucial to building oneself up, finding freedom, success, and well-being.
Misusing free time worsens inequalities between people:
Those who make the most of it
And those who don’t
This divide is growing in our age of cognitive capitalism: technological advances demand ever-higher intellectual abilities and the capacity to create added value.
Yet this is precisely what we risk losing if we surrender too much to entertainment.
What we consume can consume us. 🚬
In the Neolithic era, we lost muscle strength because fire and agriculture reduced the need for physical power.
Today, despite allowing us to do extraordinary things, technology puts some cognitive abilities—like focus and perseverance—at risk.
“In our society of abundance, where everything is designed to spare the individual from any effort—including thinking, with the recent breakthroughs in AI—we urgently need to resist the trap of ease.” — Olivier Babeau
It’s very easy—and very tempting—to get locked into this tyranny of instant pleasure.
I wrote that a growing gap will emerge between those who master their attention and time, and those who are perpetually distracted.
As this ability becomes a luxury, it will turn into a distinct social marker. Those who escape the trap of instant gratification will stand out.
Here’s a quote from the book that stuck with me:
“The burden of the modern individual is a paradox: everything is designed to spare them effort—including the effort to think. They shouldn’t fear obstacles, but rather fear their absence.”
Resisting Yourself
At the beginning of 2023, I had stopped reading, stopped writing, and was exercising less. Meanwhile, my “passive” screen time had skyrocketed.
Strangely, this coincided with a period where I constantly felt rushed and struggled to find meaning in my days. Discovering this classification of free time into three types was a wake-up call.
It highlighted my tendency to favor digital activities that disconnected me from myself—pulling me away from what could actually nourish my mind and body.
After reading the book, I took a serious look at how I was spending my free time.
Most importantly, I understood the challenge posed by the attention economy: resisting yourself to reclaim your time. That means creating distance from instant pleasure—by adding friction. And training your self-discipline to minimize distractions.
Today, I invite you to do the same: take stock of how you spend your free time. Is it truly aligned with your long-term interests and values?
Get Extra Help If Needed
Like many people, there’s often a real gap between intention and action — in other words, between “I’d like to” / “I feel like it” and actually doing it.
That’s exactly the kind of situation we created the Jomo app for — available for free on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
The goal? To help you find the right balance between screen use and your life and free time.
One feature we recommend if you’re looking to build healthier habits or pick up hobbies: Good Apps First. The concept is simple — spend X minutes on a “beneficial” app before unlocking others.
And it takes just a couple of seconds to set up!
Download the Jomo app on the App Store.
Go to “Rules.”
Tap “+” > “Action” > “Use Good Apps First.”
Pick a beneficial app and set the amount of time you want to spend on it per day.
Then, select the apps you want to block.
Hit Save — and you’re all set!
The 3 Types of Free Time
A lifespan of 80 years equals 29,200 days, or 700,800 hours. Doesn’t seem like much when you look at it that way. In recent decades, we’ve fought hard for more free time in our lives—so much so that it now dominates.
The question is: how do we use this discretionary time, this time that’s truly ours?
Tic Tac.
It’s a fundamental question, yet one rarely discussed publicly: there’s no leisure policy, no education around leisure.
We don’t learn how to value it. Is it a poisoned gift? Fun fact: at the beginning of François Mitterrand’s presidency, a Ministry of Free Time was created. It lasted three years (1981–1984).
André Henry, the first minister, was tasked with “educating people on free time, promoting creative leisure, and helping individuals master their time.”
Granville – “Ministère du Temps Libre” just opened (It’s also a bar in Normandy.)
This discretionary time, as Olivier Babeau defines it, falls into three categories that have emerged over the centuries:
1. Time for Others
This includes all social, friendly, and family activities—the time of belonging to a group, to society. This was even more central in the past when collective and/or courtly life dominated.
2. Time for Oneself
In Ancient Greece, this was skholè, or studious leisure. It included activities that helped one grow, improve, and become a better citizen.
Only the elite had access to it—thanks to their slaves, who freed up their time…
Today, it broadly refers to any activity that improves us, empowers us, or teaches us something.
Examples: reading, exercise, meditation, and cultural or artistic pursuits.
3. Time Outside Oneself
These are activities that take us away from ourselves. They’re passive, fleeting, and don’t help us grow or connect with others.
This is symbolized today by endlessly scrolling Instagram or binge-watching Netflix. We’re just passing the time.
Of course, these are ideal types—there’s overlap. For example, watching a show with friends. Or an insightful documentary on YouTube.
But our era has seen a growing imbalance between these three types of activities, elevating one above the rest. Free time today is being devoured by time outside oneself, which the author calls entertainment.
He uses this word deliberately—it comes from the Latin divertere, meaning “to divert.” Blaise Pascal described entertainment as something that “flees the essential, tries to escape the self.”
Entertainment is an ogre, devouring everything: as it eats away at our available brain time, the time dedicated to others or self-improvement shrinks.
And this has consequences.
(A less friendly ogre than this one.)
The Entertainment Takeover
With technology—and its armed wing, the attention economy—entertainment now rules our leisure time.
Thanks to its dizzying power of attraction. At our fingertips is an all-you-can-eat digital buffet, with no time or access limitations.
To give you a sense of scale: watching all the new videos uploaded to YouTube in a single day would take 82 years without breaks.
The seductive power of entertainment lies in our psychological vulnerabilities: the search for minimal effort and instant pleasure is deeply wired into us.
Like moths to a flame, we’re drawn in—and tech giants exploit these weaknesses to capture more and more of our time.
Here are some 2023 app usage stats (per French user, monthly):
The average French person spends 60% of their free time in front of a screen. Of course, we all need moments of relaxation. The problem lies in excess and imbalance.
Despite the sharp rise in free time, we realize its value doesn’t lie in quantity—but in quality. Too much entertainment, turbocharged by attention-grabbing technologies, leads to passivity.
A kind of trance becomes the norm—as I described in the edition on Netflix and binge-watching. Most of all, we develop a constant craving for ease and comfort. This contributes to disillusionment and apathy.
A lack of meaning stems from leisure that builds nothing.
“Children of abundance no longer find meaning in work, nor in leisure.” — Olivier Babeau
In contrast, studious leisure, focused on personal growth and improvement, is what brings meaning—what nourishes the soul.
Less attractive in the moment, but a foundation for a more balanced and fulfilling long-term life.
Aldous Huxley, in Brave New World (1932), already warned us. Neil Postman put it this way:
Orwell feared those who would ban books. Huxley feared there would be no need to ban books, because no one would want to read them. Orwell feared we’d be deprived of information. Huxley feared we’d be drowned in so much of it, we’d become passive.
Free time is serious business.
A Catalyst for Inequality
“Success depends more on how we spend our free time than how we spend our work life.” — Olivier Babeau
The author rejects the classic view that work is inherently alienating and leisure inherently liberating. Managing this discretionary time well is crucial to building oneself up, finding freedom, success, and well-being.
Misusing free time worsens inequalities between people:
Those who make the most of it
And those who don’t
This divide is growing in our age of cognitive capitalism: technological advances demand ever-higher intellectual abilities and the capacity to create added value.
Yet this is precisely what we risk losing if we surrender too much to entertainment.
What we consume can consume us. 🚬
In the Neolithic era, we lost muscle strength because fire and agriculture reduced the need for physical power.
Today, despite allowing us to do extraordinary things, technology puts some cognitive abilities—like focus and perseverance—at risk.
“In our society of abundance, where everything is designed to spare the individual from any effort—including thinking, with the recent breakthroughs in AI—we urgently need to resist the trap of ease.” — Olivier Babeau
It’s very easy—and very tempting—to get locked into this tyranny of instant pleasure.
I wrote that a growing gap will emerge between those who master their attention and time, and those who are perpetually distracted.
As this ability becomes a luxury, it will turn into a distinct social marker. Those who escape the trap of instant gratification will stand out.
Here’s a quote from the book that stuck with me:
“The burden of the modern individual is a paradox: everything is designed to spare them effort—including the effort to think. They shouldn’t fear obstacles, but rather fear their absence.”
Resisting Yourself
At the beginning of 2023, I had stopped reading, stopped writing, and was exercising less. Meanwhile, my “passive” screen time had skyrocketed.
Strangely, this coincided with a period where I constantly felt rushed and struggled to find meaning in my days. Discovering this classification of free time into three types was a wake-up call.
It highlighted my tendency to favor digital activities that disconnected me from myself—pulling me away from what could actually nourish my mind and body.
After reading the book, I took a serious look at how I was spending my free time.
Most importantly, I understood the challenge posed by the attention economy: resisting yourself to reclaim your time. That means creating distance from instant pleasure—by adding friction. And training your self-discipline to minimize distractions.
Today, I invite you to do the same: take stock of how you spend your free time. Is it truly aligned with your long-term interests and values?
Get Extra Help If Needed
Like many people, there’s often a real gap between intention and action — in other words, between “I’d like to” / “I feel like it” and actually doing it.
That’s exactly the kind of situation we created the Jomo app for — available for free on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
The goal? To help you find the right balance between screen use and your life and free time.
One feature we recommend if you’re looking to build healthier habits or pick up hobbies: Good Apps First. The concept is simple — spend X minutes on a “beneficial” app before unlocking others.
And it takes just a couple of seconds to set up!
Download the Jomo app on the App Store.
Go to “Rules.”
Tap “+” > “Action” > “Use Good Apps First.”
Pick a beneficial app and set the amount of time you want to spend on it per day.
Then, select the apps you want to block.
Hit Save — and you’re all set!
The 3 Types of Free Time
A lifespan of 80 years equals 29,200 days, or 700,800 hours. Doesn’t seem like much when you look at it that way. In recent decades, we’ve fought hard for more free time in our lives—so much so that it now dominates.
The question is: how do we use this discretionary time, this time that’s truly ours?
Tic Tac.
It’s a fundamental question, yet one rarely discussed publicly: there’s no leisure policy, no education around leisure.
We don’t learn how to value it. Is it a poisoned gift? Fun fact: at the beginning of François Mitterrand’s presidency, a Ministry of Free Time was created. It lasted three years (1981–1984).
André Henry, the first minister, was tasked with “educating people on free time, promoting creative leisure, and helping individuals master their time.”
Granville – “Ministère du Temps Libre” just opened (It’s also a bar in Normandy.)
This discretionary time, as Olivier Babeau defines it, falls into three categories that have emerged over the centuries:
1. Time for Others
This includes all social, friendly, and family activities—the time of belonging to a group, to society. This was even more central in the past when collective and/or courtly life dominated.
2. Time for Oneself
In Ancient Greece, this was skholè, or studious leisure. It included activities that helped one grow, improve, and become a better citizen.
Only the elite had access to it—thanks to their slaves, who freed up their time…
Today, it broadly refers to any activity that improves us, empowers us, or teaches us something.
Examples: reading, exercise, meditation, and cultural or artistic pursuits.
3. Time Outside Oneself
These are activities that take us away from ourselves. They’re passive, fleeting, and don’t help us grow or connect with others.
This is symbolized today by endlessly scrolling Instagram or binge-watching Netflix. We’re just passing the time.
Of course, these are ideal types—there’s overlap. For example, watching a show with friends. Or an insightful documentary on YouTube.
But our era has seen a growing imbalance between these three types of activities, elevating one above the rest. Free time today is being devoured by time outside oneself, which the author calls entertainment.
He uses this word deliberately—it comes from the Latin divertere, meaning “to divert.” Blaise Pascal described entertainment as something that “flees the essential, tries to escape the self.”
Entertainment is an ogre, devouring everything: as it eats away at our available brain time, the time dedicated to others or self-improvement shrinks.
And this has consequences.
(A less friendly ogre than this one.)
The Entertainment Takeover
With technology—and its armed wing, the attention economy—entertainment now rules our leisure time.
Thanks to its dizzying power of attraction. At our fingertips is an all-you-can-eat digital buffet, with no time or access limitations.
To give you a sense of scale: watching all the new videos uploaded to YouTube in a single day would take 82 years without breaks.
The seductive power of entertainment lies in our psychological vulnerabilities: the search for minimal effort and instant pleasure is deeply wired into us.
Like moths to a flame, we’re drawn in—and tech giants exploit these weaknesses to capture more and more of our time.
Here are some 2023 app usage stats (per French user, monthly):
The average French person spends 60% of their free time in front of a screen. Of course, we all need moments of relaxation. The problem lies in excess and imbalance.
Despite the sharp rise in free time, we realize its value doesn’t lie in quantity—but in quality. Too much entertainment, turbocharged by attention-grabbing technologies, leads to passivity.
A kind of trance becomes the norm—as I described in the edition on Netflix and binge-watching. Most of all, we develop a constant craving for ease and comfort. This contributes to disillusionment and apathy.
A lack of meaning stems from leisure that builds nothing.
“Children of abundance no longer find meaning in work, nor in leisure.” — Olivier Babeau
In contrast, studious leisure, focused on personal growth and improvement, is what brings meaning—what nourishes the soul.
Less attractive in the moment, but a foundation for a more balanced and fulfilling long-term life.
Aldous Huxley, in Brave New World (1932), already warned us. Neil Postman put it this way:
Orwell feared those who would ban books. Huxley feared there would be no need to ban books, because no one would want to read them. Orwell feared we’d be deprived of information. Huxley feared we’d be drowned in so much of it, we’d become passive.
Free time is serious business.
A Catalyst for Inequality
“Success depends more on how we spend our free time than how we spend our work life.” — Olivier Babeau
The author rejects the classic view that work is inherently alienating and leisure inherently liberating. Managing this discretionary time well is crucial to building oneself up, finding freedom, success, and well-being.
Misusing free time worsens inequalities between people:
Those who make the most of it
And those who don’t
This divide is growing in our age of cognitive capitalism: technological advances demand ever-higher intellectual abilities and the capacity to create added value.
Yet this is precisely what we risk losing if we surrender too much to entertainment.
What we consume can consume us. 🚬
In the Neolithic era, we lost muscle strength because fire and agriculture reduced the need for physical power.
Today, despite allowing us to do extraordinary things, technology puts some cognitive abilities—like focus and perseverance—at risk.
“In our society of abundance, where everything is designed to spare the individual from any effort—including thinking, with the recent breakthroughs in AI—we urgently need to resist the trap of ease.” — Olivier Babeau
It’s very easy—and very tempting—to get locked into this tyranny of instant pleasure.
I wrote that a growing gap will emerge between those who master their attention and time, and those who are perpetually distracted.
As this ability becomes a luxury, it will turn into a distinct social marker. Those who escape the trap of instant gratification will stand out.
Here’s a quote from the book that stuck with me:
“The burden of the modern individual is a paradox: everything is designed to spare them effort—including the effort to think. They shouldn’t fear obstacles, but rather fear their absence.”
Resisting Yourself
At the beginning of 2023, I had stopped reading, stopped writing, and was exercising less. Meanwhile, my “passive” screen time had skyrocketed.
Strangely, this coincided with a period where I constantly felt rushed and struggled to find meaning in my days. Discovering this classification of free time into three types was a wake-up call.
It highlighted my tendency to favor digital activities that disconnected me from myself—pulling me away from what could actually nourish my mind and body.
After reading the book, I took a serious look at how I was spending my free time.
Most importantly, I understood the challenge posed by the attention economy: resisting yourself to reclaim your time. That means creating distance from instant pleasure—by adding friction. And training your self-discipline to minimize distractions.
Today, I invite you to do the same: take stock of how you spend your free time. Is it truly aligned with your long-term interests and values?
Get Extra Help If Needed
Like many people, there’s often a real gap between intention and action — in other words, between “I’d like to” / “I feel like it” and actually doing it.
That’s exactly the kind of situation we created the Jomo app for — available for free on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
The goal? To help you find the right balance between screen use and your life and free time.
One feature we recommend if you’re looking to build healthier habits or pick up hobbies: Good Apps First. The concept is simple — spend X minutes on a “beneficial” app before unlocking others.
And it takes just a couple of seconds to set up!
Download the Jomo app on the App Store.
Go to “Rules.”
Tap “+” > “Action” > “Use Good Apps First.”
Pick a beneficial app and set the amount of time you want to spend on it per day.
Then, select the apps you want to block.
Hit Save — and you’re all set!
Credits
This article is a revised version of Edition #29 of the Screenbreak newsletter created by Julien Rousset. With his permission, we're sharing this high-quality content with you today! So many thanks to Julien. 😌
Photographies by Unsplash, Dall-e, ScreenBreak and the Internet.
[1] Babeau - La Tyrannie du Divertissement
[2] Savoy - Ne vous laissez pas distraire !, Heconomist, 2023.
[3] TIIRD, Entretien avec Olivier Babeau, Third, 2023.
[4] Rivalland - “La tyrannie du divertissement” d'Olivier Babeau, Contrepoints, 2023.
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The Joy Of Missing Out
Crafted in Europe
All rights reserved to Jomo SAS, 2025
The Joy Of Missing Out
Crafted in Europe
All rights reserved to Jomo SAS, 2025
The Joy Of Missing Out
Crafted in Europe
All rights reserved to Jomo SAS, 2025