Disclosed herein is a mobile terminal and an operation control method thereof in which a delay time of the screen lock execution is controlled according to the type of application, thereby improving the inconvenience of a user interface and effectively managing a battery according to an interrupt when required to continuously receive an input from the user or continuously provide visual information to the user. For this purpose, a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may include an input unit configured to receive a user input; an execution controller configured to execute screen lock if the user input is not received for a predetermined time; and a change controller configured to change the predetermined time based on a type of application.