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Keep going · Lesson 6 of 11

Remove and Add Friction to Start Tasks and Skip Distractions

Change your surroundings before the urge arrives: make distractions harder, the task easier and plan an answer for urges.

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THE WRITTEN LESSONFollow along at your pace

Willpower is a poor plan when the phone is right next to you. In this lesson you will change your surroundings, so the task gets easier and the distractions get harder.

Decide before the urge

The strongest tactics against temptation are settled before the temptation appears. Urges tend to grow stronger over time, so changing your surroundings before one builds may work best. This idea comes from expert reviews and has been only lightly tested, so treat it as a promising approach, not a guarantee.

A line chart of urge over time, rising to a peak. A dashed line low on the chart is marked Act here, well before the peak. A phone in a box labeled Drawer sits on the right. A bar says Decide before the urge.(opens the full-size picture)
Act early on the curve, before the urge peaks.

Two colleagues

Picture two people at work. One keeps the phone on the desk and says no, again and again. The other leaves it charging in the hall. By noon, the first has spent real effort and probably lost a few rounds. The second never had the argument.

Two people at desks. On the left, three speech bubbles that all say No, a phone on the desk, and a tired face labeled Tired by noon. On the right, the phone charges in a box labeled Hallway, with a smiling face and the label Never had the argument.(opens the full-size picture)
One person argues all morning. The other never has to.

That is what research finds, too. People with strong self-discipline spend less effort resisting temptation, not more. They meet fewer temptations in the first place.

Two hand counters of temptations met. The one for disciplined people reads Few, the one for others reads Lots. A bar below says They meet fewer temptations.(opens the full-size picture)
Disciplined people meet fewer temptations to begin with.

Change the setting

In randomized studies, students who changed their surroundings felt more successful at meeting their study goals over the next week. Study without the phone in the room. Keep snacks in a hard-to-reach cupboard. Log out of the shopping app.

Three numbered examples: 1, Phone out of the room, out of sight, shown as a phone beside a door with an arrow; 2, Snacks out of reach, high cupboard, shown as a bag on a high shelf; 3, Log out, shopping app, shown as a blank phone beside a door. A bar says Felt more successful.(opens the full-size picture)
Three small changes to your surroundings.

Friction you can live with

Choose friction you can live with. Hide one feed, rather than locking the whole phone. A blocker you switch off on day three does nothing. In one trial, people who set daily app limits they could not override spent about 22 fewer minutes a day on their most tempting apps.

A phone with a grid of apps and a tick labeled Hide one feed, a locked phone labeled Lock everything, and a switch turned off labeled Day three, with the label A blocker you switch off does nothing. A bar says About 22 minutes a day less.(opens the full-size picture)
Pick a barrier you will not switch off on day three.

Slow the bad, speed the good

Friction works both ways. Make the unwanted choice slower, and the wanted one faster. Lay out what you need the night before. Open the document before you close the laptop.

Two rows. Under Slow the bad, a red dot leads by dashed arrows through boxes marked Drawer and Locked to a phone. Under Speed the good, a green dot leads straight to an open laptop, with labels Laid out the night before and File already open. A bar says Slow the bad, speed the good.(opens the full-size picture)
Put steps in the way of the phone and take them out of the way of the work.

Plan for the urges that get through

Some urges still get through, so plan your answer. “If I reach for the phone in the first work hour, I put it in the drawer and open the report.” Name what you will do instead. Plans that only say “I will not” can backfire.

A plan reading If I reach for the phone, with a dashed arrow to I put it in the drawer and open the report, ticked. Below, a crossed-out plan, I will not check my phone, labeled Can backfire, and a bar that says Name the replacement.(opens the full-size picture)
Name what you will do, not only what you will not do.

Small phone settings

Small phone settings help too. Move tempting apps off your home screen, so you have to search for them. That adds a moment to change your mind. Put a pause in front of an app: in one test, people backed out of about a third of attempts to open it. And turn off notifications you do not need, or batch them a few times a day.

A phone with an app grid, with an arrow to a box labeled Off the home screen and the words Search to find it. A large phone screen showing Wait with the label About a third backed out. A crossed-out bell labeled Batch a few times a day.(opens the full-size picture)
Each small barrier adds a moment to change your mind.

YOUR TURN

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Read the full lesson script

In this lesson, you'll learn to change your surroundings, so the task gets easier and the distractions get harder.

The strongest tactics against temptation are settled before the temptation appears. Urges tend to grow stronger over time, so changing your surroundings before one builds may work best.

Picture two people at work. One keeps the phone on the desk and says no, again and again. The other leaves it charging in the hall. By noon, the first has spent real effort and probably lost a few rounds. The second never had the argument.

That's what research finds, too. People with strong self-discipline spend less effort resisting temptation, not more. They meet fewer temptations in the first place.

In randomized studies, students who changed their surroundings felt more successful at meeting their study goals over the next week. Study without the phone in the room. Keep snacks in a hard-to-reach cupboard. Log out of the shopping app.

Choose friction you can live with. Hide one feed, rather than locking the whole phone. A blocker you switch off on day three does nothing. In one trial, people who set daily app limits they couldn't override spent about twenty two fewer minutes a day on their most tempting apps.

Friction works both ways. Make the unwanted choice slower, and the wanted one faster. Lay out what you need the night before. Open the document before you close the laptop.

Some urges still get through, so plan your answer. If I reach for the phone in the first work hour, I put it in the drawer and open the report. Name what you'll do instead. Plans that only say I will not can backfire.

Small phone settings help too. Move tempting apps off your home screen, so you have to search for them. That adds a moment to change your mind. Put a pause in front of an app: in one test, people backed out of about a third of attempts to open it. And turn off notifications you don't need, or batch them a few times a day.

So remember: decide before the urge, change the setting, and make the good thing easy. Before the next lesson, change one thing in your space before your next work session. Next, you'll learn about temptation bundling and rewards.