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Use a Commitment Device to Quit Social Media or Reduce Your Usage
Sometime last year I read James Clear’s best-selling book Atomic Habits. I was surprised to learn he was struggling to finish. So, he did something drastic.
He asked his assistant to reset his passwords on social media every Monday. Then he would ask them for her on Friday.
He could only use social media on the weekend. He started making progress on the book, and the rest is history. The book has since sold a million copies.
In our private listener tribe, our monthly theme is Minimalism. And since I’m a big advocate of digital minimalism, I decided to do the same. I had my assistant reset my passwords on twitter, Instagram and Facebook. But I told her not to give them to me for 30 days.
While I’m a big fan of distraction blockers and distraction-free tools, they have their limitations.
- The fact that you bypass the screen time feature on the iPhone is a design failure in my opinion. I wish there was an option for a hardcore mode.
- You can bypass most distraction blockers by rebooting your computer. I’ve done this on occasion when I needed to access my inbox.
If you’re serious about quitting or reducing your use of social media, use a commitment device.
