Get your devices in order with apps to help you switch off

In March Jake Knapp, a design partner at Google Ventures, travelled back in time without a Tardis.

The executive wrote a blog post explaining how he had turned his iPhone from highly functional hand-held computer to a device that did little more than send and receive texts and calls.

He sabotaged its functionality, deleting any apps with a newsfeed and disabling features such as Safari and his email account (actually easier than you think if you fiddle about with settings). “I felt like my attention span — not so great to start with — was getting worse,” he explained. “It was supposed to be a one-week experiment. Now it’s been months and I don’t want to go back.”

Perhaps Knapp sounds like a madman. Or perhaps you are already opening your settings, finger hovering indecisively. You’re not alone: across the capital people are pulling the plug. Not entirely — for to be disconnected is to exist no longer — but certainly for a few hours a day. London is taking a deep breath and steeling itself against the endless distractions of the internet.

Ironically, unlike Knapp, many are doing so with the help of software. Freedom, a plug-in for Windows and IoS, locks you out of the internet for up to eight hours. You are only allowed back online after the set period has elapsed, and you have to reboot entirely if you want to surf the internet. Freedom bets on your patience levels – that rebooting is too much of a hassle, especially if you’re busy or your computer is a bit of a dinosaur.

If total Freedom is a little radical, there’s Anti-Social — a favourite of cramming students — which locks you out of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Others keep things simpler: one colleague sets an alarm that goes off at the same time every weekday evening. It marks the point at which she turns off her phone for the night.

Then there’s the hardcore self-hacking. “Jailbreaking” your iPhone involves removing the limitations of IoS software, enabling you to add apps and extensions not offered in the Apple Store. This means you can add AppCap to your phone’s settings. AppCap allows you to set limits on the use of certain programmes — for example, self-impose a rule that you’ll only spend 10 minutes on Facebook each day. If you try to exceed it, you’ll be admonished with a message telling you you’ve already used up your allowance.

On your marks, get set... switch off.