I started a Hack Club! Hack Club supports thousands of teen-led coding clubs across the world, and my school hosts one of them. At this point it could possibly be one of the best things I’ve done. It even led to my j*b at Hack Club, onboarding new clubs, as I was onboarded (as a leader) in November.

My school play! This year my school hosted a production of Beauty and the Beast. We had some incredibly talented young performers from all year groups in the school come together. It was amazing and we worked so hard. While my role on stage was only a Villager, in the background there was a lot more going on. I set up a camera so we could see what’s going on from backstage, recorded almost every rehearsal to create content for the schools socials and helped with any job that needed doing. I’m so excited to do it next year.

Publishing the school Podcast! While I’ve been co-hosting and producing the school podcast since last year we have stepped it up a notch in the past 4 months. Instead of locally publishing small interviews to the school community via outlook and teams, we now send them to the general public via the school website AND we are conducting bigger interviews with the Headteacher and Heads of Departments.

This year has been amazing, from an education and non education perspective. I look forward to what next year holds as I’ll be starting my GCSE years which is very exciting.

Thank you, Freddie ❤️

This has been primarily published on LinkedIn

So I have realized over recent months that I have a slight problem with the amount of time I spend on both my phone and other tech, as many people in today’s age do. In fact, the average 13 - 14 year old spends over 4 hours a day on their phone ¹. While I spend under three hours a day on my phone I also spend time coding and doing homework on my laptop as well as any time spent online at school. There are several ways I’ve tried to combat this.

Social Media Detox

In December 2024, a week before my birthday, I attempted a social media detox. While I still used my phone to message, call and browse the web I limited my time on all social media apps - to none. The apps included were YouTube and Instagram as that is all I had at the time. Over the seven days I did succeeded in my goal and spent no time doom scrolling on my phone! It works, but if you use social media for work or message people then this may not be the best way.

Apple Screen Time

As my phone is managed by a parent I have Apple Screen Time set up and enforced. I knew the passcode though so it proved unsuccessful in limiting my screen time. However, even when the code was changed, I could still use up all my screen time in one session of doom scrolling.

Snitch

so this is not an advert, but it is the point of this article

Snitch is what I currently use to manage my screen time. I came across the app while doom scrolling on Instagram and haven’t turned back. What Snitch does is it makes you hold a button and describe why in order to unlock your app. It also notifies your friends in your circle when you unlock. It then takes the time you use away from your groups daily pot. You can add up to 3 people with the free version but can pay a small fee a month to add more.

As this app is very new they are updating it regularly. I also have been on a call with the CEO, Asha to talk about the app. I hope you consider giving Snitch a go as it has helped me go from maxing out my screen time limit to only using 50% - 75% of it. You can find out more on their Instagram here, I recommend you check it out!

Get Snitch for iPhone or iPad here!

Conclusion

Overall screen time is a big part of my life but I also waste a lot of time scrolling online. These measures are meant to deter me from wasting time. I’m still learning how to reduce and manage my screen time and I would love to hear your take.

Thank you for reading my March Blog Post. If you want to talk about Snitch or just want to chat my email is hello@freddieyershon.co.uk

Footnotes & Links

Snitch App Store Link

Asha’s Instagram

@getsnitch

Hello and welcome to my first blog post of 2026. So I’ve checked out a few of my fellow hack clubbers’ blogs and thought they were very cool and wanted to have a go at making a good blog so here we go!

So what is Woof?

Woof is a YSWS program that I ran at the start of this year. If you are not familiar YSWS stands for You Ship We Ship. Hack Club runs events regularly where you ship (publish a project) and then Hack Club will send you something in return. YSWS at Hack Club are sponsored by a member of the Hack Club staff, most likely a Gap Year / Intern.

Basically: you build something, and Hack Club sends you cool stuff.

The first message I sent about Woof in #ysws - December 17th 2025

Woof is based on a YSWS ran previously in December 2025 called Meow. You Ship 5 hours of coding on a cat related project and We Ship a cat plushie. I wanted to apply that premise to dogs!

This is my dog called Cooper, he is an Australian Labradoodle.

YS: 5 Hours of coding for a dog related project

WS: A $25 dog plushie!!!!!

Working as a team

A YSWS can’t always be done on your own, luckily I had three volunteers to help me with Woof and I couldn’t have done it without them!

• Aditya - Designed Website
• Will - Moral Support
• Safia - Designed the AMAZING Woof Logo

Safia’s Woof Logo!

We worked together to launch the RSVP form and website. In total 54 teens RSVPed! The website is now available at woof.hackclub.com

Getting a sponsor

As I said above, getting a HQ sponsor is a very important part of a YSWS. They are your Point of Contact for Hack Club HQ and get you the budget (money), domain and handle fulfilment from HQ as well as lots more.

There are many ways to get a sponsor. Most commonly is getting a large number of RSVP’s. This can be gained through regularly posting in #ysws.

There is also cold DMing. This is not a recommended technique but I gave it a go. I DMed @AVD (Alex Van Doren) who is interning at Hack Club on Christmas Day if he would sponsor Woof. Alex also sponsored Meow that I spoke about above.

Live

Over the next few weeks we all chatted in a group DM about launching Woof. We finalised the plans and set a two week deadline starting from New Years Day (GMT).

Context: @woofwoof is the ping group for all the woof organisers

Mentions

@mysticbird’s sticker sheet

@mysticbird designed this amazing sticker sheet for woof! Unfortunately we were unable to print it out to send to woof participants but is is so good.

Ending

Overall Woof has been an amazing experience and I’m so happy I got to be a part of it. This is the first YSWS event I’ve run, so I learned a lot.

Thank you of course to: Aditya, Will, Safia, Alex and thanks to you for reading this. See you next time!

Extra Notes

(updated: 06/03/2026)

Deven, who is Hack Clubs events lead posted this amazing blog post about YSWS’s! You should totally check it out, it is better than mine :sob:

Hey, I’m Freddie and this is my first blog post. I have no idea what I’m going to put here but it is cool, right?

Cause this is markdown I can do stuff like this, And make stuff bolder!

And do subheadings

print("and code boxes")

And today I learnt about this:

This is a quote box!