Why a Typed Code Beats a Countdown Timer
Almost every "pause before you buy" tool on the market works the same way: a countdown. Thirty seconds, sixty seconds, sometimes a full day. It sounds reasonable on paper, but it doesn't hold up against how impulse actually works. A countdown just asks you to wait, and waiting is passive. You can stare at a screen, scroll somewhere else and come back, or just let your phone sit face-down until the number hits zero. None of that requires you to think about the thing you were about to buy. The timer runs out, the button unlocks, and nothing about your state of mind has changed in the meantime.
Not Yet works differently on purpose. Instead of a countdown, it shows a freshly generated, random code and asks you to retype it, character for character, before the checkout page will continue. Reload the page and you get a brand new code. Nothing is cached, nothing is reused, and there's no way to memorize your way past it ahead of time.
Active attention, not passive waiting
Retyping an unpredictable string takes just enough real, active attention that skipping past it on autopilot isn't really possible. You have to look at the code, hold a few characters in mind, and type them correctly. That small amount of deliberate effort is the entire mechanism. It's not trying to be clever or to trick you into stopping. It's trying to buy back a genuine few seconds of thought right before a purchase, the same few seconds that are easy to skip entirely when a "Buy Now" button is one tap away.
Not Yet isn't a hard block. Retyping the code, answering a reflection prompt, or waiting out a timer (Not Yet offers all three as unlock methods, picked once in Settings rather than as an in-the-moment choice) all let a purchase through, by design. The goal is a pause, not a lock.
Two other ways to unlock a pause
If retyping a code isn't the specific friction that works for you, Not Yet offers two Premium alternatives, chosen once in Settings rather than offered as a menu every time a block appears: answering a short reflection prompt in your own words, or a plain wait timer. Whichever you pick, it applies to every block consistently. There's no in-the-moment choice to shop around for the easiest option, because the easiest option would defeat the point.
Built to feel calm, not punishing
Shame-based framing tends to work against the exact thing it's trying to fix, so Not Yet has no red "stop" screen and no lecture anywhere in it. Every block screen includes a way out that isn't buying anything: a permanent, free Quiet Place you can send yourself to instead, with a short mood check-in and a few other things to do rather than shop. It's a pause tool, not a treatment program, and it doesn't pretend to be one.
That's the whole idea. Not a puzzle to solve once and remember, not a timer to wait out without thinking, just a few seconds of real, unavoidable attention, exactly when it matters most.