Warden
Decide how you want to stay informed
Pick one or two times a day and one or two sources you trust. A morning read and an evening summary cover most days. If a daily newsletter or a single radio bulletin fits your life better, that can replace the app entirely.
Turn off breaking-news alerts
Breaking alerts turn every update into an interruption. On iPhone, open Settings, then Notifications, tap each news app and turn off Allow Notifications, or move the app to Scheduled Summary so its alerts arrive at the times you read the news anyway.
Government alerts such as Emergency Alerts are set separately at the bottom of the Notifications screen, so turning off a news app does not switch them off.
Reference: Apple: Change notification settings
Make the news harder to stumble into
- Remove news widgets from your Home Screen and Today view.
- Move news apps off the first page, into the App Library.
- If you read the news in a browser, clear the pinned or frequently visited news sites.
Give the news a window, and close it outside
Once you know when you want to read, block news apps outside that window, for example everything except 7 to 7:30 in the morning and 6 to 6:30 in the evening. Add the news websites you use as well, since a blocked app is one search away in Safari.
Apple's Screen Time Schedules set when app categories are available. In Warden you choose the exact news apps and websites, and the rule can run in Lockdown on the days you know you will be tempted.
When something big is happening
On a day when the news really matters to you, do not scrap the plan; widen it. Allow one check an hour, from one source, and go back to your usual windows once the story settles. Keep Emergency Alerts on, since they cover the kind of news that needs you to act.
Example: 40 refreshes before lunch
Screen Time shows a news app opened around 40 times before noon on weekdays, usually for a minute or less. The plan: turn off its alerts, remove the news widget, and block the app and its website outside 7 to 7:30 AM and 6 to 6:30 PM on weekdays.
After two weeks, compare the morning pickups. If the count has dropped and you still know what happened in the world, keep the windows. If you felt out of touch, add a single lunchtime check rather than dropping the rule.
