We’ve started the February 30for30 challenge and I did a video about why I think this may be the most important challenge we’ve ever done.
If you want to watch it, it’s here.
But if you don’t want to watch it, here’s the summary:
After coaching 6K+ individual authors, I can say with absolute certainty that there isn’t a planning system or productivity system or a tip or a trick that’s going to help most of us more than the one thing people most often change after taking Write Better-Faster (WBF).
Not reaching for the phone in the morning. Not opening social media or email. Not getting into the loop.
There is a “why” behind this that’s biological. (Which I did a video on here. But again, if you don’t want to watch, here’s the summary:) Our bodies are wired to close habit loops as quickly as possible. If there is a faster hit of dopamine I can get, my body will tell me anything it has to tell me to get that loop closed.
Even if it’s a lie.
It will say, “that can’t possibly be the problem” or “we can get off the platform anytime we want” or “I’m in control” or “I’m just gonna check really quick…”
But really quick is a lie. That’s a dopamine loop telling you whatever it has to tell you in order to get the hit.
I don’t want to talk about productivity exclusively around here, and I try hard not to make everything about efficiency (even though Strat/Arr/Analy is just chomping at the efficiency bit all the time), but it isn’t just about productivity for me, the not-reaching-for-the-phone.
It’s also about happiness.
Our brains are not wired for happiness. They’re wired for survival. And when those habit loops get wired too tight, and the dopamine hit is too big, the body believes it needs social media to survive. And it seems logical in the moment. “Of course I can control this. I’m an adult.” (Well, yes, I absolutely am an adult. But how have I been at controlling it in the past?)
And again, as always, nothing applies to everyone.
But the number of people who will complain about not feeling productive while ignoring this fundamental issue is… significant. If I had to put a percentage on it, I would say close to 80% of us do actually need to consider detoxing now and again from social media and email addiction.
It’s just not the same kind of addiction as other addictions we face. This, on some level, seems benign. “It’s just ___insertplatformhere__” or “but I need to work” or “but my friends are there” or “but it’s uncomfortable when I don’t do it.”
RIGHT. It’s supposed to be uncomfortable. That’s because your body thinks it needs whatever-it-is to survive. Your body believes that it literally can’t live without it.
Survival. Not happiness.
So if you have, at all, wondered about your productivity lately… join us in this challenge. Just try it. You can still win without doing all 30 days.
You can find the challenge rules here.
And if you don’t struggle with social media first thing in the morning (or if you struggle with it at other times), then count yourself lucky! A huge number of us aren’t getting what we want in life because our survival mechanisms are lying to us (inadvertently, of course, but still, lying to us) about what we do and don’t need out of life. Not being subject to that would be a wonderful thing, and let’s celebrate that!
For everyone who does struggle, though, please consider joining us.
Terry made a great point on the Crowdcast on the 1st. He likened the social media loop to a love potion. When you’re operating in “normal mode” and not under the guise of the “love potion,” you think it’s completely irrational to be guided by that potion, and to think your behaviors ever could be subject to it.
But as soon as you take that love potion in the morning, you are fascinated out of your control. You keep thinking about the object the potion enchanted you to love. And you become obsessed with it. You keep going back to it, even when life distracts you momentarily from other things.
The goal of this challenge is just to delay the fascination as long into the day as possible. And then hopefully to remind our brains that it can find fascination that’s real (and not drugged) from other places, as well. To train the brain to find satiety in a walk or a book or a flesh-and-blood-person. To disconnect the survival mechanism.
I hope you’ll join us.
(Also, if you want to do the daily accountability, here is the spreadsheet.)
To read more posts, check out Patreon