There are a number of things you should start doing. But sometimes it’s smarter to focus on what not to do. This is the simple trick of inversion.

Some of my biggest wins in life are when I stop bad habits. Especially the bad habits that trigger other bad habits. Like avoiding certain environments that trigger bad behavior. Or avoiding people that trigger bad behavior.

We have more certainty on what is bad than what could be good. This is because we deal with the aftermath of bad habits every day. The signal that “this is bad for me” is repeated over and over and becomes etched into our thought patterns.

In my experience, removing the bad habits is enough. Once I get out of my own way, I naturally start doing the right things instead. It doesn’t take much force. I am grateful for this, as I imagine it’s not true for everyone.

---

There is one bad habit I have been unable to knock for the last 9+ years: chronic screen use. Everyday, I consume 5-6 hours of: YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, etc.

5 hrs/day * 365 days/yr * 9 yrs = 16,425 hours 😬

By the time I’m 30, that will be 4 years of my life consuming media. (!!!)

I have tried to break this bad habit dozens of times. And I have quit some of these for some amount of time. But it doesn’t take long before I quickly substitute one device or platform with another. My success is always short-lived. I imagine many of my peers can relate.

Why? Well, consuming media is super stimulating. Your brain learns this quickly. So in order to avoid it you expend willpower. But using willpower is exhausting, and eventually you fail. Willpower is not reliable.

What should you do? Design your environment so you don’t have to use willpower. Get rid of access to internet media. That way, you aren’t tempted in the first place, and you can finally break the habit.

But that would mean not having devices! No phone, no tablet, no laptop. And that’s a world that is hard to create. Modern society requires us to own devices that connect to the internet. This is the environment I can’t seem to escape. Having devices is a sort of prison.

It isn’t completely lost. There are restrictions I can place on my devices.

• Delete social media accounts, permanently.
  • I did this for Instagram & Snapchat in 2023 and I haven’t used them since! That’s because there’s a social cost to creating a new account. Unfortunately, this isn’t true for all platforms.
• Use a dumb phone.
  • This could cut down usage to 2-3 hrs/day.
  • Won’t I still be able to access media through my laptop?
• Set screen time limits, where someone else has the password.
  • If I don’t port over to a dumb phone, I should set this up on my iPhone.
  • Not feasible for a computer - since I sometimes need to access YouTube, or Twitter, or Reddit for research or task.

I am thinking of more solutions to this wide spread problem facing my generation. We have been using these devices since we were 12. It’s going to take some activation energy to break these habits, for good.