I’d love suggestions on how to disconnect earlier in the evening in a positive way. Keep in mind this app is ALSO on my phone. It’s difficult to not check on other things when opening this app to report in.

I use this app on my phone as well. When I started to disconnect at night, I did it in small increments of time and built up from there.
I go to bed at 9 so I made a timer to check in at 7. Although I was still on afterwards I had another timer to remind me to get off. I started off with 15 minutes of disconnecting time and I’ve built it up to now an hour.
I find the best way to disconnect in a positive way is ti create an alarm to remind you to get off. Mute your notifications until the next morning. It’s okay to check your other apps, just make sure you’re disconnected by the time you set for yourself. It’ll really help.

It helps if you put your phone in do not disturb mode. That way you won’t see notifications pop up and it’ll be easier to disconnect. Plus if you are tempted to check other apps due to the notifications badge above the app icon, that can be removed manually in settings. It further reduces the urge to check other apps. The basic idea is not seeing other apps later at night, so that you are not tempted to open them. What you could do is remove all other apps from your home screen and just keep this app. Other apps are still easily accessible but not right in front of you to get you tempted.