Your First Week of Recovery: A Digital Cleanup Checklist

The first week is the hardest. Not because the steps are complicated, but because everything feels raw and real and a little overwhelming. You've made a decision—or you're getting close to making one—and now you're looking at your phone, your laptop, your inbox, and thinking: where do I even start?

This guide is a day-by-day framework. Not rules. Not a test you can pass or fail. Think of it as a map for the week ahead. Some days will feel manageable. Others won't. Skip a day, come back to it later—that's fine. The order matters less than the momentum.

What matters is that you're here. That's already a step forward.

Day 1: Pause and Breathe

Today is not about fixing everything. Today is about three things:

Save crisis support numbers. Put them in your phone's contacts right now, before you need them. Not because you'll necessarily use them today, but because having them accessible when you do need them matters more than you think.

• 1-800-522-4700 — National Council on Problem Gambling Helpline (call or text, 24/7)
• 988 — Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text, 24/7)
• ncpgambling.org/chat — Live chat support
• gamblersanonymous.org — Meeting finder

Tell one person. This one's optional, and it's also the most powerful thing you can do this week. It doesn't have to be a dramatic conversation. A text to a friend: "Hey, I'm working on cutting back on something, might need some support this week." That's enough. Having one person who knows takes the weight off carrying it alone.

Set your intention. What does this week mean to you? You don't need a grand plan. Just a quiet acknowledgment: I'm cleaning up my digital space so it supports me instead of working against me. That's it.

Day 2: Your Phone

Your phone is your most personal device. It's also the one most likely to have gambling touchpoints baked into it.

Delete gambling apps. Open your app drawer and look for anything connected to betting, casino games, poker, daily fantasy sports, or lottery apps. Delete them. Not "move to a folder"—delete.

Some to watch for that aren't obviously named:

• "Sports" apps that are actually betting platforms (some sportsbooks brand themselves as sports news or scores apps)
• Daily fantasy sports apps (DraftKings, FanDuel, PrizePicks, Underdog)
• "Free" casino or poker games—even those without real money wagering can keep the patterns active
• Lottery apps (Jackpocket, TheLotter, state lottery apps)

Delete your accounts, not just the apps. Removing an app from your phone doesn't close your account. The account remains active, and operators may continue marketing to you. For step-by-step instructions on permanently deleting accounts from specific platforms, GuardingGamblers maintains guides for over 500 gambling operators.

Remove bookmarks. Check your mobile browser bookmarks and frequently visited sites. Delete any gambling-related entries.

Check your home screen widgets. Some sports betting apps install widgets that show live odds or scores. Remove them.

Disable app store gambling categories. On iOS, go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Content Restrictions and restrict apps by age rating. This won't block everything, but it adds a layer of friction.

Day 3: Your Browser

Browsers remember everything. Saved passwords, autofill data, cookies that keep you logged in—your browser might be making it easier to access gambling sites than you realize.

Clear gambling site data. In Chrome: Settings > Privacy and Security > Clear Browsing Data. You can clear cookies and cached data for specific sites without wiping everything. In the address bar, type chrome://settings/content/all to see stored site data and remove gambling-related entries individually.

Remove saved passwords. Go to your password manager (Chrome's built-in, 1Password, Bitwarden, whatever you use) and delete saved logins for gambling sites. This removes the one-click convenience that makes access feel effortless.

Delete autofill data. If your browser has saved your card details for gambling deposits, remove those entries. Settings > Autofill and Passwords > Payment Methods in Chrome.

Install a site blocker. This is one of the most effective steps you can take all week. A dedicated gambling site blocker prevents access to gambling websites even if you try to visit them in a moment of vulnerability. (See our full comparison of recovery tools for a detailed look at Gamban, BetBlocker, and other options.)

Two solid options:

• Gamban — Paid service (~$3-5/month or annual plans), blocks thousands of gambling sites and apps across all your devices with one license
• BetBlocker — Free, blocks over 15,000 gambling websites, lets you set a blocking duration up to five years

Install one. Set it up for the longest duration you're comfortable with. The point of a blocker isn't that you can't be trusted—it's that it removes the decision from moments when deciding is hardest.

Day 4: Your Email

This is the big one. Your inbox is probably the most persistent source of gambling content in your digital life. Marketing emails arrive whether you ask for them or not, and they're specifically designed to re-engage you.

Understand the scale. Most people who've interacted with multiple gambling platforms over months or years have hundreds—sometimes thousands—of gambling-related emails sitting in their inbox. Each one is a potential trigger, and each new arrival is a small interruption to your peace.

The manual approach. In Gmail, search for known gambling operators:

from:draftkings.com OR from:fanduel.com OR from:betmgm.com

Select all results, delete them. Repeat for every operator you can remember. Then set up a Gmail filter (Settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses > Create a new filter) to automatically delete future emails from those addresses.

The limitation: you can only filter what you know about. Affiliate emails, sub-brands, and operators you've forgotten about will still get through. (For a deeper look at why unsubscribing alone doesn't work, and what to do instead, we have a dedicated guide.)

The tool-assisted approach. WagerWard is built for exactly this day. It scans your Gmail for gambling emails across hundreds of operators, affiliates, and promotional patterns—including ones you might not remember or recognize. A free preview scan covers the last 60 days and shows you what's there without deleting anything.

No email content is stored—only metadata like sender and subject line. You stay in control of what gets deleted.

Set up ongoing filters. Whether you clean up manually or with a tool, set up forward-looking filters to catch new gambling emails as they arrive. In Gmail: search for a gambling term or domain, click the search options dropdown, then "Create filter" > "Delete it."

Day 5: Your Finances

This day isn't about shame or inventory-taking. It's about setting up practical guardrails.

Contact your bank. Many banks now offer gambling transaction blocks. This prevents card payments to gambling merchants from going through. In the UK, most major banks have this built into their apps. In the US, availability varies—call your bank and ask.

Review direct debits and recurring payments. Check for any active subscriptions to gambling services, VIP programs, or betting tip services. Cancel them.

Consider a spending tracker. Apps like YNAB, Monarch Money, or your bank's built-in spending analysis can help you see patterns and keep financial awareness high without it feeling punitive.

Separate your money if it helps. Some people find it useful to move their day-to-day spending money into an account with a gambling block, keeping the rest in a savings account that's slightly harder to access impulsively.

Day 6: Your Social Media

Social media algorithms learn what you engage with. If you've interacted with gambling content—even just pausing on a post—the algorithm has taken note.

Unfollow betting accounts. Go through your follow lists on Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Look for:

• Sports betting tipsters and "guaranteed picks" accounts
• Casino streamer channels
• Gambling-related meme or community accounts
• Daily fantasy sports analysts focused on betting angles

Mute gambling keywords. On Twitter/X, go to Settings > Privacy and Safety > Mute and Block > Muted Words. Add terms like: bet, betting, odds, parlay, accumulator, free bet, deposit bonus, casino. This filters these terms from your timeline.

Adjust ad preferences. On Facebook/Instagram: Settings > Ad Preferences > Ad Topics, and indicate you want to see fewer ads about gambling. On Google: myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy > Ad settings, and turn off gambling-related ad personalization.

Be honest about triggers. If certain sports accounts (even legitimate news ones) consistently post content that makes you think about betting, it's okay to mute or unfollow them for now. You can always re-follow later when you feel more settled. Protecting your headspace is more important than staying up to date on scores.

Day 7: Your Support Network

You've spent the week cleaning up your digital environment. Today is about making sure you don't have to navigate what comes next alone.

Review your saved crisis resources. The numbers you saved on Day 1—are they still in your contacts? Good.

Explore Gamblers Anonymous meetings. You don't have to commit to anything. Just look. GA offers in-person meetings, phone meetings, and online meetings. Visit gamblersanonymous.org to find options near you. Many people find that just attending one meeting—even if they mostly listen—shifts something.

Consider professional support. A therapist or counselor who understands gambling-related challenges can offer tools and perspective that go beyond what a checklist can provide. The National Council on Problem Gambling helpline (1-800-522-4700) can help connect you with local resources.

Check in with your person. If you told someone on Day 1, circle back. Let them know how the week went. It doesn't have to be a long conversation. "Hey, I did the thing. It was hard but I feel better about my phone and inbox now." That's enough to reinforce the connection.

After the First Week

This checklist covers the digital cleanup, but recovery is more than settings changes and deleted apps. The digital environment matters because it's where triggers live—but the real work happens in the spaces between the screen.

Some things to keep in mind going forward:

• It's not linear. Some weeks will feel like massive progress. Others will feel like you're back at square one. Neither feeling is the full picture.
• Triggers evolve. The things that pull you today might not be the same in three months. Stay aware, and adjust your environment as you learn more about your own patterns.
• Tools are tools. Site blockers, email scanners, spending trackers—they're scaffolding, not solutions. They give you space to do the deeper work, and that space matters.

You made it through a week of intentional change. That means something. Not everything is fixed, and it doesn't need to be. But your digital world is a little cleaner, a little quieter, and a little more on your side.

That's a real step forward.