Punish

Android. Coming soon to Google Play.

Miss your goal, and a charity you hate gets the money.

Set a goal. Put money on it. Miss, and it goes to the organization you'd least want to have it.

Losing money to a cause you like is just a donation.

Coming soon to Google Play

Android first. iPhone is being built.

The Punish home screen. $6 at stake across three goals: I will run 5k before work, checked by an AI-verified photo tomorrow at 9 AM; Keep whole phone under 3h a day, used 1 minute; each card shows $2 going to Safari Club International Foundation if it is missed.

The deal, in plain words.

Every goal ends on this screen before it goes live.

Your goal
An app, a site, the phone, or a task
Checked
By Android, a photo, or where you are
You forfeit
An amount you pick
The money goes to
Someone you'd hate to fund
If you succeed
You keep it
The deal, in plain words. Your goal: keep YouTube under 30m a day. Checked: every day, from usage data. You forfeit: $2 per day you go over. The money goes to: Safari Club International Foundation. If you succeed: 30m of YouTube, not four. Button: I agree, put $2 on the line.

Your goal

Anything the phone can measure, or you can swear to.

Cap an app, a site or the whole phone. Or promise a thing by a deadline.

  • An app or a siteA daily cap, in minutes.
  • The whole phoneEverything counts, minus what you exempt.
  • OpensCount how often you open it, not how long.
  • A taskRun 5k, write 500 words. Done by the deadline, or pay.
  • Photo proofThe shot is checked against the goal.
  • GPS proofChecked by where you are.
The New goal screen set to Screen time: YouTube and youtube.com, use less, 30 minutes a day shared between the two.

Checked

By the phone, not by you.

Screen goals read Android's own usage data. Nothing to log, nothing to argue with.

Tasks are settled by a checked photo, by where you are, or by your word. Your word is only as strong as you are when you answer.

About to go over? Punish names your charity on the screen you're about to go over on.

Photo and GPS proof are part of Premium.

The screen Punish puts up with a minute left: One minute of whole phone before the goal breaks. Safari Club International Foundation thanks you. Two buttons, stay and lose $2, or go back and save $2.

You forfeit

An amount that stings. You pick it.

Start small: $5 is plenty. It's owed the moment you go over, and you pay it yourself on every.org. Punish never touches the money.

You can argue
Appeal any automatic miss. The money waits for the answer.
You can stop
Free for the first 30 minutes. Then it runs to the end.
You are asked first
Will you pay if you miss? Say no, and the stake is $0.
A question before the goal goes live: Will you pay the $2 if you miss? It goes to an organisation you would hate to fund, within a day of the miss. Buttons: Yes, I'll pay, and No, make it $0.

The money goes to

The anti-charity

Who would you hate to fund?

This is the part that does the work. The money goes to the one you'd hate to write a cheque to.

Punish doesn't ask who you hate. It asks where you stand, and suggests the other side.

  • You stand for Animal rights Safari Club International FoundationHunting-advocacy fund
  • You stand for Hunting and game PETAAnimal-rights nonprofit

Also guns, climate, religion, civil liberties and family, both sides each. Or search any US nonprofit.

  • Paid on every.org, a US 501(c)(3), which issues the receipt.
  • Registered US nonprofits only.
  • Your name and email stay private unless you tick the box.
  • Punish takes no cut.

Listing an organization isn't our endorsement or criticism of it. Which one you'd hate to fund is your call.

The anti-charity picker: Who would you hate to fund? Filters for guns, climate and animals, with Animals selected, suggesting Safari Club International Foundation because of where you stand, and PETA below it.

If you succeed

Nothing happens. That's the point.

The money stays yours. Thirty minutes of YouTube, not four hours.

Kept days build a streak and earn loops, for a skip, extra minutes or a streak freeze. No number of loops settles a forfeit.

The screen after a kept day: a check mark, Kept. $10 stays. The charity gets nothing. Plus 20 points.
Kept.
The screen after a missed day: an OWED stamp. The charity gets your money. That was the deal. Minus 10 points.
Missed.

Why it works

Three studied ideas at once: your own money, a cause you'd hate, and someone watching. No study has tested all three together.

Money on the line

Out of every 100 people, how many reached their goal.

Their own money at risk47 in 100
No money at risk10 in 100

Weight loss over 16 weeks. By nine months the gap had closed: it works while the deal runs.

Volpp et al., JAMA, 2008. Randomised, 57 people.

Why an anti-charity

How much a loss stings, against a win of the same size.

Losing $10
Gaining $10

A loss hurts about twice as much as an equal gain. Money to a cause you like barely counts as a loss.

Tversky and Kahneman, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1991.

Telling someone

Out of every 100 people, how many reached their goal or got at least halfway.

Told a friend, checked in weekly76 in 100
Kept it to themselves43 in 100

Wrote it down, told a friend and sent weekly updates, against only thinking about it.

Gail Matthews, Dominican University of California. 267 people; a conference presentation, not a journal paper.

None of this is a promise about you.

Somebody watching, if you want one.

Off until you turn it on. A display name you type. No email, no number.

Each buddy sees only the level you pick:

  1. How many goals you kept yesterday
  2. Your streak and last seven days
  3. Each goal by name, and its day
  4. What is riding on each goal
  5. Which charity each goal pays

Hide any goal from every buddy. No buddy sees the app, the minutes or your photos.

The Buddies tab before an account exists: see how your buddies' days went, and choose how much of yours each one sees. Nobody can find you unless you switch that on.

Questions

What if I don't pay?

No debt, no chasing. Until you pay or decline, a screen appears whenever you open what you went over on, and no new goal starts. Decline, and it goes on the record as unpaid.

Can I cheat?

Some. Screen time comes from Android, and deleting the app doesn't cancel a debt. An honesty task is as honest as you are. You'd only be cheating the person who set the goal.

What does Punish collect?

No sign-up. Goals and screen time stay on the phone. Proof photos are checked, not kept. A forfeit's title and device id go 30 days after it settles. Measurement is off by default. Privacy policy.

Where exactly does the money go?

To your pick, on every.org's checkout. every.org adds a tip of about 15% for itself; tap Edit and set it to zero.

Can I end a goal?

Free in the first 30 minutes. After that it stops tomorrow, and today still counts. A stake you can delete the moment it bites is not a stake.

Is there an iPhone version?

Not yet. It's being built, and Apple has to approve the screen-time part first.

Willpower is not a plan.

Pick one small goal. Put $2 on it.

Coming soon to Google Play

For enquiries: support@punishapp.com