Hackathon 2.0

Inspiration

Social media platforms are engineered to exploit dopamine-driven reward loops, using infinite scroll and instant metrics to trap users in involuntary "doomscrolling" cycles. Typical screen-time limits fail because they lack structural friction—they are too easy to skip or ignore. We built Hourglass to treat digital consumption not as an addictive default state, but as a controlled reward that must be earned through conscious task execution.

What it does

Hourglass introduces intentional friction to break the infinite scroll loop through three core mechanisms: Intentional Morning Ritual: Users must outline their high-value real-world goals for the day before any distracting feeds are unlocked. Regulated Social Windows: Users set strict, finite time boundaries for when they are allowed to browse social platforms. The Task-Lock Mechanism: When the social timer ends, the app locks down. To unlock a future window, the user must select a pending daily task; scrolling remains blocked until that task is fully complete.

How we built it

Backend: Leveraged Base44 to manage secure user authentication, database management, and persistent storage for daily schedules and productivity metrics. Logic Layer: Integrated native LLM functions to parse morning inputs and categorize user goals automatically. Frontend: Designed a minimal, low-stimulation dark user interface that uses paginated layouts instead of bottomless scroll elements to create natural stopping points.

Challenges we ran into

Navigating mobile OS sandboxing and platform data restrictions was a major hurdle, as social networks intentionally block external feed management. To provide a functional alternative feed without relying on heavily restricted official APIs, we used web scraping proxies to aggregate public data safely. Additionally, creating a persistent, system-level background lock that users couldn't easily bypass required designing unique client-side friction layers.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We successfully built a behavioral framework that turns a digital vice into a powerful productivity incentive. Our core "Earn-and-Execute" loop seamlessly links screen-time to real-world achievements. In preliminary testing simulations, this structured friction successfully broke mindless browsing habits, saving active beta users an average of over two hours per day.

What we learned

We learned that willpower alone cannot compete with multi-billion dollar retention algorithms; effective digital wellness requires unskippable, hard design friction. We also discovered that starting the day with proactive goal-setting—rather than passive notifications—fundamentally resets a user's cognitive focus and drastically reduces digital fatigue.

What's next for Hackathon 2.0

Native OS Integrations: Developing system-level extensions for mobile and desktop to enforce hard application-blocking across all third-party browsers. AI-Powered Sentiment Filtering: Using real-time NLP to automatically filter out outrage bait and high-anxiety content during allowed social windows. Accountability Focus Rooms: Creating shared group pools where friends or remote teams lock their apps together, unlocking social windows only when collective milestones are met.

Built With

• base44