Hi! I’m Tommy Sobel, digital habits coach at Brick!
I have a neuroscience background and was a junior executive at DreamWorks Studios working on digital content. At the time, I had to do a ton of work on my phone.
I secretly struggled with constant, compulsive phone use.
I’d check my phone first thing in the morning. I’d check it while trying to focus on work. I'd wake up in the middle of the night just to check it, for no reason. I started to notice that my constant phone use was making me anxious and irritable and no matter how hard I tried, I felt like I could never catch up with everything.
I also noticed that almost everyone around me was just like me, silently struggling with personal and productivity issues caused by phone overuse.
From my past work conducting neuroscience research at UCLA and Duke University, I knew enough about habit change and behavioral reformation, so I decided to test some rudimentary techniques on myself…and it started working! So I started sharing these techniques with some friends and it worked for them too.
At this point that I became inspired to leave my job at DreamWorks and to launch Brick: The Phone Smart Movement to tackle this epidemic for everyone seeking digital wellness.
Today, 6 years later, I have helped hundreds of people around the world break their phone dependency, reduce their Screen Time and feel freedom from their phone.
I did this by taking everything that worked best for me and others and consolidated it into:
The Phone Smart® Method
The Phone Smart® Course is a transformational habit change program that is proven to help busy people break unwanted phone habits, free up 100 hours a month, and enjoy more time off. I lead this program LIVE online and it is available to anyone, anywhere in the world.
I launch this course only a few times a year.
To mark yourself as interested in the next cohort, register here.
The maladaptive behaviors I specialize in addressing are:
- Checking your phone when trying to focus on something more important.
- Checking your phone while driving.
- Checking your phone in social situations, even when it might be inappropriate.
- Checking your phone out of habit, for no specific reason (e.g. mindless scrolling).
- Checking your phone first thing in the morning or in the middle of the night.
We'll also address the negative emotional patterns that accompany these bad habits, like:
- Getting upset at yourself for spending time on your phone.
- Feeling worse after using your phone or scrolling through social media.
- Feeling like you don't have enough time in the day for doing things that are important to you.
What My Clients Say
“Tommy has created a transformational experience…
that is friendly and informative from start to finish. The Phone Smart Method pulled back the curtain on some of my bad phone habits, then taught me how to take back control of my phone use. My new digital wellness strategy has freed up valuable time in my day and I'm loving it!”
- Colton O., digital illustrator
“I knew I had an issue with phone overuse…
and since being coached by Tommy, my phone usage has gone down from an average of 11 hours a day to as low as 5 hours; that’s 6 more hours each day I now spend on other things. For the first time in a long time, I can be off my phone while with friends. This coaching has changed my life, I couldn’t recommend it more.”
- Leah H.
“Tommy's phone habit coaching has been instrumental in making me think before I engage with my phone.
Now I have a concrete plan for how to utilize my phone when necessary, rather than letting it drive my life. The Phone Smart Method would be beneficial to anyone who feels they are spending too much time in the digital realm rather than the real world, and I couldn't recommend this enough.”
- Craig P., film producer
