E22 - How to make scrolling annoying: [Ability Design]

Hi everyone,

My name is Lemmy and this is my story of how I became The Attention Master.

If you find yourself giving in to phone temptations too quickly, then episode 22 is for you. Let's dive in!

Here is what you are going to learn today:

• The ability chain.

• How to lower the ability of bad habits.

• Actionable tips for each component of the chain.

Quick review from last time: Behavior happens when motivation, ability and a prompt come together. B = MAP (Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University)

Apps like Instagram are so addictive, because

• the prompt comes from inside of you and can’t be taken away (your internal riggers aka. negative emotions)

• the motivation is super high because you are wired to get rid of the discomfort and your phone offers the fastest solution to get relief

• the ability is super high because these apps are for free, quick to access, require no physical or mental effort, and barely interfere with existing routines.

Similarly, if you want to get rid of a bad behavior (like mindless scrolling), you can:

• Remove, avoid or learn to ignore the prompt (→ episode 21)

• Reduce your motivation for a behavior (→ next episode)

• Reduce the ability of a behavior → This is the easiest and most concrete, and what we will cover today.

In simple words: Let’s make scrolling more annoying.

Here’s how:

1. Increase the TIME

How to do it:

1. Turn off your phone if you don’t need it for the next hour. Rebooting time = friction

2. Put it in another room. Walking distance = friction

3. Blocking apps with healthy interventions like breathing exercises to delay access time.

Why it works:

When a negative emotion hits you, you unconsciously reach for your phone. Your brain is on autopilot, this behavior has become a sticky habit like walking or driving. You end up on social media and 10 minutes later you are wondering why you picked up your phone.

If you delay accessing your phone or the time-wasting apps, there's a good chance the impulse will go away, or at least you'll ask yourself: Do I have a good reason to use my phone right now?

Often the answer will be no, and the friction (like getting up, walking to the phone in another room, or just waiting) will be so high and annoying to overcome that you will often decide against it.

Humans love comfort. Leverage your laziness to make scrolling more annoying.

2. MONEY: make it more expensive

This is a difficult one. Because we have to make a clear distinction here.

You can make a financial pre-commitment to be a “good boy”, but this is more likely to reduce your overall Motivation (remember B=MAP) and not so much your Ability in the moment when you are about to be a “bad boy”.

The concept is based on the behavioral principle that people are more motivated to avoid losses than to seek gains.

Pre-commitments could be:

• Paying for an app

• Donating money to a charity when you fail

• Buying dinner for your partner, siblings or friends → real accountability, they'll check in on you

The important thing here is to make the pledge big enough that it really hurts you to lose it. You should not be able to pay it every day.

However, it can be associated with great failure, shame, and very negative emotions.

To make bad behavior more expensive in real time, an application would have to make you pay for every minute you spend in problematic applications, or every minute you exceed your limits.

That's a very sado-masochistic approach, which is probably why it hasn't been implemented yet.

Would you like such an application? → DM me and we will build a prototype as soon as 50 people want it ;)

3. Increase PHYSICAL effort

Simple rule: Before I use my phone, I have to do 1 push-up.

How will you remember? Put a rubber band around your phone so you are reminded every time you pick it up.

I mentioned putting your phone in a different room.

If you are sitting at your desk, getting up and walking is the exact opposite of what you are doing.

This is also physical effort.

4. Increase MENTAL effort

In the context of scrolling, this only applies if you have to make a mental effort to unlock your phone or certain apps.

That's why Apple created a 4-digit password, so you can't just click "one more minute," but unfortunately, 4 digits is too short. We remember 4 digits as easily as we drive a car, so we type them in on autopilot and the effect is gone.

Fortunately, there are applications that allow you to create a password that you can't remember. This password can then be stored with a friend, in your notes or email, or in an app like Password Locker.

In addition to passwords, some apps offer mental games that you have to play, such as puzzles, quizzes, or vocabulary, before you can log in.

5. Create conflicting ROUTINES

Last but not least, you can make the bad habit conflict with important routines.

For example, if you love to play tennis, hate losing to your hitting partner, and at the same time you have a hard time going to bed because you're always scrolling at night, the best thing you can do is schedule tennis for early in the morning.

If winning at tennis is really important to you, then scrolling in bed will interfere with that important morning routine.

6. This only works if…

No matter which one you do, all of them will annoy you on a regular basis.

Because whenever you come with a real intention, you have to accept that you now have to wait, or pay money, or make an effort anyway. This can be super annoying.

So all of the above only works if you change your mindset.

The intervention is for you, not against you. Whenever you have to stop, it doesn't steal your time, it helps you develop resistance and patience.

Embrace boredom and embrace annoyance. It will make you a better person and a better performer.

This knowledge comes at 0 cost

If you learned something,
be generous and share it with friends or family.

See ya next week
Lemmy

Recap:

• Make scrolling harder by increasing the access time, …

• or by financial pre-commitments: charity, gifts, etc.

• or by physical friction: push-ups, walking, etc.

• or by mental friction: passwords, puzzles, etc.

• or by conflicting routines: letting scrolling get in the way of your important stuff

• This only works if you embrace annoyance and patience

Sources:

1. Tiny Habits, B.J Fogg

2. https://behaviormodel.org