So that my lesser self doesn’t hijack my behavior

One question that’s helpful to ask while creating is:

Where can I add friction, such that my lesser self doesn’t hijack my behavior?

Doesn’t even need to be that much. The minimum amount of friction will do.

Like not having a certain additive app on your phone. Or not keeping any junk food at your house. Or disabling auto save passwords on time sucking websites.

Each of these obstacles put resistance between you and your desire to do something that’s potentially unhealthy, like compulsively checking email or social media, eating unhealthy food, spending six hours watching cat videos, or blowing a hundred bucks cash on scratch off lotto tickets.

Remember, make the right things easier and the wrong things harder.

How are you using friction in your own life? What is enhancing your ability to maintain good habits, and avoid counterproductive ones?

Here is another example I always appreciated.

Hemingway did a now famous interview with a literary journal in the fifties. When asked about his creative process, here’s the tip he shared.

You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice, and know what will happen next, and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again. It is the wait until that next day that is hard to get through, but it works in the end.

That’s strategic friction. The time elapsed from the moment you stop until you start again tomorrow, that’s the necessary resistance. To the point where you can’t wait to get back, because you know what you want to say next.

What is enhancing your ability to maintain good habits, and avoid counterproductive ones?