Earn with a productive app

Lock Instagram
until you've done
20 minutes of
Duolingo.

Tonic keeps doomscrolling locked until you've spent your minutes in Duolingo, Anki, GoodNotes, or any app you choose. It counts the minutes the app is on screen, through Screen Time, and unlocks your apps on its own. Set a goal to hit each day, or bank minutes to spend as you like.

Duolingo
Learn 20 min in Duolingo
counted while the app is on screen
14 of 20 min
then they open: Instagram TikTok
Anki
Or bank it for later
a minute of reviews is a minute of scroll
32 min banked
32 min reviewed today

Where the minutes go

The good app never loses to nothing.
It loses to one quick check.

The deck, the lesson, the sketch, the pages: they are all one tap away, and so is the feed. The feed goes first because it asks nothing of you. Tonic puts the good app in front of it, so the check comes after the minutes.

Tonight, at 8

Twenty minutes in the app. Then the feed.

Here is the whole rule, at the times it happens.

8:04 PM

You reach for Instagram

The lock screen says how many minutes are left tonight and offers your app instead. One tap opens it.

Instagram, locked

20 min of Duolingo left

Open Duolingo instead
Not yet

8:04 to 8:24 PM

You do the thing

Nothing to start, log or claim. Screen Time counts the minutes the app is open, the same way your phone already counts every app, and Tonic watches that number.

Duolingo
Learn 20 min in Duolingo
counted while the app is on screen
17 of 20 min
counting
then they open: Instagram TikTok

8:24 PM

The feed opens on its own

One notification, and Instagram and TikTok are open when you reach for them. You never open Tonic to claim it. Very rarely iOS runs a few minutes late; tapping the notification unlocks them right away.

Lesson done. Instagram is unlocked. now

Your rules

Two ways people set it up.

The good app always comes first. You pick the shape of the deal.

The daily gate

Good app first

Until today's twenty minutes are in, the scroll apps stay locked. Put them in, and they open on their own for the rest of the day. Tomorrow the good app comes first again.

Duolingo 20 min → Apps open all day

The bank

Earn & spend

Minutes in the good app become minutes of scroll, at a rate you choose, from three for one to one for three. Spend them tonight or let them roll over. A long Sunday session can pay for a week of quick checks.

Anki 30 min → 30 min banked

How locked is "locked"? Either way, you pick.

A pauseA short wait before it opens, and about 15 minutes inside if you push through. Then the lock is back.
A pause that growsYou can push through, but it pushes back harder with every visit that day.
Full lockNo way in until the minutes are done.

What counts

  • Minutes on screen in the app you pick, any app on your iPhone or iPad.
  • Two apps add up toward one goal: ten minutes of Kindle plus ten of Duolingo is twenty.
  • Minutes on your iPad too, when Screen Time's Share Across Devices is on.

What doesn't

  • Time in the background, or audio with the screen locked. Only the app on screen counts.
  • What you did inside: reviews, lessons, pages. Tonic counts minutes, not progress.
  • Time from earlier today, before you set the rule up. Minutes count from the moment you save it.

A companion, not another productivity app

Keep the app you already use.

Your phone already counts how long each app is on screen. Tonic reads that number for the app you choose and opens your other apps on its own. Nothing to wire up, no check-in, nothing to log.

Works with the apps people name most, including

Duolingo Anki Chess.com Bible App by YouVersion Kindle GoodNotes

and any app you pick

Screen Time
Tonic Tonic
Lesson done. Instagram is unlocked. now

One-time setup: pick the app that earns, pick the apps it unlocks. An app cannot be on both lists. Apple never tells Tonic which app you picked; naming it is optional and only lets the lock screen open it for you.

The apps people name

What counts in each app, in plain words.

Tonic only learns an app's name when you choose to name it, so this is the list of apps people have named, most common first. Any app you pick works the same way.

Duolingo

Duolingo

The app people name most. Minutes on screen count; lessons, XP and the streak are invisible to Tonic, so a goal of ten or fifteen minutes stands in for "a real lesson". A laptop session has no lock to lift: Tonic lives on your iPhone and iPad. Babbel, Pimsleur and Busuu work the same way.

Keep TikTok locked until you've done your Duolingo →

Anki

Anki

Minutes with the deck open, not reviews or retention. Tonic cannot tell reviewing from browsing, so people set the minutes that match their daily load and bank the heavy days for the light ones.

Lock apps until your Anki reviews are done →

Chess.com

Chess.com

A game, a puzzle set or a lesson: minutes on screen count the same. Tonic cannot tell a rated game from puzzle rush, so the rule is simply time at the board before the feed.

Bible App by YouVersion

Bible App by YouVersion

A reading plan or the verse of the day counts by the minute on screen. Listening with the screen locked does not, because Tonic counts what is in front of you, not audio.

KindleApple Books

Kindle and Apple Books

Reading on the phone or iPad counts by the minute. A Kindle e-reader is a separate device and invisible to Tonic; audiobooks play with the screen off and earn nothing.

Lock Instagram until you've read →

Pimsleur

Pimsleur, and other audio-led lessons

Counts while the lesson is on screen. Lock the phone and only listen, and the minutes stop, because Tonic reads screen time, not playback.

GoodNotesProcreate

On iPad: GoodNotes, Procreate, morning pages

Tonic runs on iPad. Locks and app minutes work on an iPad on its own: twenty minutes in GoodNotes or a sketch in Procreate before YouTube opens, all on the iPad. With Share Across Devices on, those minutes count on the phone too.

Morning pages are a practice, not an app: three pages first thing, before the phone. Write them in GoodNotes and Tonic counts the minutes the app is open; write them on paper and mark them done yourself, and the feed waits the same way. It was the first thing Tonic was ever used for.

Steps and daylight need an iPhone or Apple Watch in the picture; an iPad on its own has nothing counting them. Apple Health data reaches the iPad through iCloud once you open the Health app there.

Connects with any app: from GitHub to a sign-language course

Tonic doesn't keep a list of approved apps. You pick the one that earns in Apple's own picker, and the minutes it is on screen count. People have named GitHub, a kanji trainer, a sign-language course, a bar-exam prep app, a metronome for music practice, AllTrails, the New York Times games, a Pomodoro timer, Apple Notes, a stoic journal, Claude and ChatGPT. If your good thing lives in an app, that app can be the key.

People set up things like this.

"This app has helped me catch myself when I'm procrastinating or just blooping and redirected me to things I always say I want to do but get distracted from instead." App Store review, August 2026

Quick answers

Which apps count?

Any app on your iPhone or iPad. You pick the one that earns in Apple's own app picker, so Duolingo, Anki, Kindle, GoodNotes, a study app or an app nobody has heard of all work the same way: the minutes it is on screen count.

Does it know I finished a lesson, a review or a chapter?

No. Tonic counts minutes on screen, not what happened inside the app. Apple's design keeps that private: Tonic cannot tell reviews from browsing in Anki or pages from menus in Kindle. Pick a minute goal that matches a real session and change it whenever your routine changes.

Does time on my iPad count?

Yes. Tonic runs on iPad, and app minutes and locks work there on their own. With Screen Time's Share Across Devices on for your Apple ID, iOS pools app minutes across your devices, so twenty minutes in GoodNotes on the iPad can unlock the phone.

What if I use the app on my Mac or in a browser?

Tonic lives on your iPhone and iPad and locks nothing on a Mac, so a desktop session has no lock to lift. People who work at a desk keep a small daily goal on the phone for the days they never sit down.

Do I have to open Tonic when I'm done?

No. When your minutes are in you get one notification and the apps open whether Tonic was open or not. Very rarely iOS is a few minutes late; opening Tonic or tapping that notification unlocks them right away.

What does it cost?

Free to start: lock two apps and earn from one productive app, for as long as you like. Tonic Unlimited covers your whole phone for $29.99 a year or $9.99 a month, with the first 7 days free.

How earning works, step by step → · Why Tonic asks you to name your apps

Checked against the app on September 28, 2026.

Start with two apps and twenty minutes in the one you keep meaning to open.

1
Pick the apps that eat the eveningInstagram, TikTok, the one you open without deciding to.
2
Pick the app that earnsDuolingo, Anki, GoodNotes, whichever holds the thing you meant to do. Twenty minutes a day, or a bank that rolls over.
3
The good app first, then the feedThe minutes happen first, and the apps are simply open when you look up.
Get Tonic free Free to start · no account needed · iPhone and iPad, iOS 17.4 or later

Tonic is an independent companion and isn't affiliated with Duolingo, Anki, Chess.com, YouVersion, Amazon, Apple, GoodNotes or Procreate.

Other ways to earn: lock Instagram until you've read · do your Duolingo first · all of them