STOA #3 | your environment works against you. Here's how to fix it.

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To read the last newsletter: https://wearestoa.beehiiv.com/p/stoa-part-2-phone-destroyed-hormone-system

Last time we spoke about how to fix your mind from your phone by “finding something that is worth fixing it for.” But that can’t be it right? It’s not! There is more. Way more. Too much to be exact but I’ll show you the best methods.

(Free STOA wallpapers at the end)👇

For example:

You want to stop using your phone as soon as you wake up?

Option 1: Set a goal to stop using it when you wake up. (You might fail, you might succeed)

Option 2: Put your phone on the other side of your room or at least out of reach before going to bed.

(You will succeed. You can’t fail because you can’t reach your phone)

Now that is a very simple example that may be too good to be true because these systems will not always give you a 100% success chance but will always increase your chance of success.

A better example for this may be the following:

You want to stop eating candy. 🍬

Every time you walk past your living room you tend to grab some candy as they lie in a bowl on your coffee table.

Now the reason for this behavior is not only your lack of self-discipline but also the candys position. The positing makes it very easy and effortless to grab it.

Now the 2 options in front of you are:

Option 1:

You set a goal to stop eating candy.

(You might succeed, you might fail)

Option 2:

You put the bowl of candy in a cupboard on the top shelf. (You might succeed, you might fail but your success rate is way higher)

Why is that? 2 reasons

Reason 1:

The labor to get the candy is way heavier and therefore it is not as tempting because grabbing candy is now an active decision.

Reason 2:

Your urges are connected to known elements of your life. Things you see, hear, feel or do are connected to urges.

You know the feeling when you hear an old song or a watch an old movie from childhood and suddenly, you seem interested to try out food you ate or drinks you drank or games you played when you were a child? That is because that song or that movie is connected to the food, drinks & games you consumed whilst listening to that song or watching that movie.

Now when you see candy, you want candy because every time you saw it, you grabbed it.

1. Turn your phone around with the screen downwards on silent. ✅

2.  If you still grab it, put your phone in flight mode while studying.✅

3. Put it on the other side of your room or in another room even.✅

4. Set up a long code to open your phone.✅

After you’re done with work, you can grab the phone again so what’s the ick?

In case you didn’t realize yet, the first thing you look at, when you open your phone, is your lock screen so there you go. I made this for y’all really quick

Hope this helps you out:

Click on Pic to download

Summary:

Instead of betting everything on your self-discipline like a self-help guru crackhead, you should try building a system, that works according to your goals.

Therefore, you will achieve way more way faster and way easier.