Convenience leads to consumption
In a recent post, Seth Godin had this to say:
If you want to drink more herbal tea, get a hot water dispenser that keeps it handy and on tap.
On the other hand, if you want to watch less television, disconnect the TV after every viewing session.
Convenience leads to consumption — Seth Godin
In other words: make it easier to do the good stuff and make it harder to do the opposite.
I think it's a timely reminder for me, given this Iran war rabbit hole I've been going down, to step back. Here are the ways in which I'm making it more inconvenient to go down a news spiral:
- Disabled Reddit on my phone — no one has gotten more informed on Reddit
- Blocked news sites till after lunch — my mornings are mine
- Set aside my phone for the first hour of the day — see above
The first 2 are automatic but the last one requires willpower, so I may see if I need to work my way up to 1 hour. But starting small like this makes sense to me. I can always build on this later. I also know there's the other part — what do I want to make more convenient so that I do it more?