🚀 This is how your phone is holding you prisoner
And all these costs you 1,908 hours a year...
👆🏼 You can listen here 🎧
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🎞 New Mini Documentary: Rock Solid Confidence - Out now
⏰ Time to write: 10 hours 11 minutes
Today's phones aren't just regular phones anymore. 📱
They're a $3 trillion military grade lethal weapon that targets your brain stem directly, by chaining you to it... for life.
You might ask what are you talking about now, Kristóf? I'll show you! 🫵🏼
Your phone uses your most primal needs and urges as a weapon against you.
It makes you give up all your precious minutes until the last second. 😣
Only to make more money from you!
We all have 24 hours, 8 of which we sleep and 8 of which we work, so the remaining 8 would be the most valuable to us.
Yet more than half of it is wasted staring at a little gadget with a diameter of 20 cm in our hands. 🤤
The situation is pretty hopeless, BUT...
At any moment you can take full control of your life.💪🏼
I'll show you how soon!
First, let's see...
🚀 How's the challenge?
🤯 91% Sold for the Mindset Meetup
In case you didn't know what it's all about:
We're creating Hungary's biggest ever self-improvement event specifically for young people. 💪🏼
Read more about it here: onlinemarketinges.com/mindset-meetup
And that's not all...
In addition to Normal and Pair tickets, we're giving away a 10-video Communication Course. With 9 years of experience packed into it! 🥳
Our courses usually cost around 15 thousand forints.
And it would still be worth every penny...
Because the knowledge inside can earn you many times more! 💰
But you don't have to pay 15 grand for it, just buy your ticket and you'll get the Communication Course as a gift. 🎁
🎞️ The new Documentary is coming
Geri in Monk Mode edited this video, so I'm proud to say it will be ready and ready to publish by the weekend. 🙏🏻
No different subject than the much requested...
CONFIDENCE! 🔥
This video is specifically for YOU, ha:
You feel you don't have enough self-confidence
You know you're on the right track, but you haven't had a breakthrough yet
You just don't know where to start building
You're full of confidence, and then you find out if you really are
🎞️ You can watch Saturday Night: OM YouTube
Now we can start...
💭 Why is our phone addictive?
In today's capitalist world, we only see the truth when we look behind the scenes.
Of course, every company wants the "best" for us. That's why they come out with better and better software and apps. 📲
But they want something even better...
Money! 💰
With most apps, the more time you spend on them, the more money they make from you.
It is true that there are several business models, but their goal is the same.
The longer you keep the user! ⏳
Some apps have developed this to a master level: Facebook, Insta, TikTok.
It is no coincidence that billions of dollars are spent every year to improve the "user experience".
They are advised by the best psychologists and behavioral scientists in the world on how to capture your attention! 👩🎓
And now the question, why is this bad for ME?!
Well, my friend you may not have seen it, but these Apps are not free...
You pay for them with one thing:
Your time!⏰
And sooner or later, your goals...
Because the more you are controlled and dependent, the less time you will have for your goals and the further away you will be from them.
They suck you in and take your attention and with it your time by just scrolling without thinking. 🫵
💡 Side note: On an average day you click on something on your screen 2,617 times. 2.617! Can you imagine that?! Even on purpose it would be hard to do that many, but we're so sucked into the system we don't even notice.
I'll show you a shocking figure:
Go into your phone settings and look up your daily screen time. ⚙️
Multiply that by 365 and divide by 24.
That's how many days your addiction costs you per year. 😱
But, if you want to see an even rougher number, multiply it by 60.
Assuming you live at least 60 more years (but hopefully more).
So, it comes out to how many days in your life it will cost you. ☀️
Rough huh?!
But, in case you're not scared enough, here's the most shocking data. 🤯
You may have seen this already, the gist of it is that it gives you an eyeful of how much time you have left on earth. Each little cube represents a week, once the week has passed you have to color it in.
That way you can see how much "life" you have left.
That's all well and good, but if we subtract 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours of work, this table suddenly shows a completely different picture...
💡 Side note: I've laid it out to make it easier to plot.
The yellow indicates your time spent sleeping and working and the green is your actual "life". 🌱
And my dear friend, from that green you also need to subtract your screen time...
The situation is getting more and more drastic!
I know, very scary...
I've seen more than one person whose life has been ruined by social media and similar idiotic phone games.
You're up against the best in the world.🌍
And competing for your precious time!
It's a question of how much you let control slip out of your hands! 🎮
But before we descend into complete lethargy, I have to tell you that you can use your phone consciously.
And, when you do, it becomes a gentle helper and not a prison. 🫂
If you haven't already...
Please download the BookBase App and give it a try. 🧡
We've been working with the guys for 3 years to make your development more enjoyable. Now I feel we're doing pretty well with the new App.
Download and try it for 7 days absolutely free!
🧐 How to keep it under control?
There are lots of ways to do this, but today I'm going to show you the specific system that helped me change my life.
You should know about me that I work on my phone, so my daily screen time was extra high. 📈
Sometimes it hit 9 hours.
9 HOURS, you heard me right. 🤯
Half my waking hours.
💡Side note: I could cover it by saying "well I'm working on this", but let's be honest, half of those nine hours were work at most. The rest was just pointless Reels and TikTok.
I realized I couldn't go on like this.
If I don't change, I could lose the chance of achieving my goals. ❗
And I didn't want that!
So, I dug deep into it and after a lot of experimenting, I managed to get it down to 5 hours 40 minutes, by working at it for REALLY long hours. 🧪
Only the fun has been cut back.
Before we jump into specific techniques, it's important to understand why addiction develops? 🤔
It is, like any other addiction, a bad habit.
A habit that doesn't serve us, but is already sufficiently ingrained in our brains.
How does a habit develop?
Taking a cue from James Clear's masterpiece, I've found this diagram for you:
📕 Book recommendation: the book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear is a must-read on this topic! It's the 2nd most read book in BookBase, so that says a lot. Definitely worth a listen! 🎧
It all starts with a sign (1 Notification), then you get curious (I wonder who it is?), so you answer the sign (open your Insta) and get rewarded (because someone liked and thought of you).
💡 Side note: The color of the Notifications, is Red, because it has been proven to attract more attention and therefore draw more people back to the Apps. Recently Apps have been experimenting with so called 'delayed' notifications, for example you get a Like notification, open the App and realize that it was a Like 10 hours ago, not now.
🥳 Fun fact: The Like button was invented by Justin Rosenstein at Facebook in 2007 and introduced in 2009. It's all based on the psychology that it makes you curious that someone is thinking about you. One of the greatest inventions in social media as we know it today!
So, it is with boredom...
Your brain reacted to boredom by pulling out your phone and spinning TikTok, giving you instant Dopamine, causing your brain to set this up as a useful action. 💡
After all, you didn't have to exert yourself to fix the problem (which was boredom)
And after doing this again, and again, and again your brain made it the norm!
In most cases boredom is what triggers this addiction in us. 🥱
How can boredom be managed differently?
There are 3 simple ways:
Meditation: it enhances inner calm, promoting mental freshness and mindful presence. 🧘
Exercise: Exercise stimulates the release of endorphins, which improves your mood, reduces your boredom and increases your mental freshness. 💨
Progress towards your goals: progressing towards your goals makes you feel good because it helps you reach the fulfilment of your inner self. 🎯
📕 Book recommendations: The perfect book for this might be "Flow" by Mihályi Csíkszentmihályi and "Deep Work" by Cal Newport, both of which you can find summaries of in BookBase. 🎧
Once you have that, you understand the basics.
Sticking with James Clear, to break a bad habit, all you have to do is:
"Make it harder to do the habit."
And that is exactly what we will do with the following tactics! ♟️
They work well separately, but together they can cut your current screen time in half.
Ready?
Then buckle up, because this is going to be fast! 🚀
1. App limits 📉
This is built into your phone by default, you just probably don't use it yet. The idea is that you can set how much time you want to spend in certain Apps. Just like this:
This is a good warning, but we don't stop there!
2. App limits 📵
This is pretty similar to limits, only much better. Because you can set which days, which hours, which Apps to disable. ❌
By far the best App for this that I have been using consistently for 1 year is Opal.
It's paid, but worth every penny, it will save you so much time.
Plus, with the link above you get 1 month free. 😉
Not only does it organize your day, it's fun too. This is what it looks like when you block something:
3. Do not disturb 🌙
Most often, notifications distract you and suck you back into the world of Apps.
So, one thing you can do is turn off almost all of them. Only the ones that serve our development remain.
Duolingo, BookBase and others can stay, of course! 🧠
Inside the settings, you can set which people you receive calls from and which Apps can send you notifications in "Do Not Disturb" mode.
It's important to choose this well.
💡 Side note: You can also filter out 99% of pollsters and random phone scams with this little trick. Just a side note.
4. Black and White 🔲
I don't know if you've noticed, but the brighter the color of an App, the more inviting it is to click on. Just look at Duolingo or Instagram.
Generally speaking, the more colorful something is, the longer you look at it. Because colors trigger different stimuli in our brain. 🗯️
It's a proven fact that if our phones were in Black and White mode all day long, our screen time would be reduced by 70%. 📱
Because everything would be boring.
You don't think so? 😏
Just try it!
However, all day would be really hardcore, so we'll only turn it on at certain intervals.
Just when we want to work on something in depth. ⚒️
💡 Side note: I have it on right now, for example!
5. Automations ✈️
This is all well and good so far, but this is where the picture really starts to come together.
Because we can automate these with the "Shortcuts" app, which is on your iPhone by default, but I'm sure there's a similar one for Android.
I'll tell you what they are and you can get some ideas from that. 👀
It's important to note that this is also an individual preference and it's good if it's tailored to your own rhythm of life.
- At 8:00 in the morning my phone automatically goes into "Do Not Disturb" mode. That way I can't be disturbed while I'm working. ☀️
- At 22:00 in the evening the Do Not Disturb mode is switched off. 🌙
- When I write the Blog, my phone goes to Black and White, I usually write at the same time every time. ✍🏼
- Also, when I go to my grandmother's house to talk to her more and press my phone less. 👵🏼
- At 00:15 in the evening my phone switches to Airplane mode. It's a warning that it's time to sleep and it makes me sleep better, because it doesn't send any signals at this time. ✈️
- Then it turns off at 8:00 in the morning, because it's time to start the day. 🔥
We're plenty good now, but there's still room for a little tweaking.
6. Hide in folders 📂
It can help a lot if you hide your Social Media Apps in a Folder, as it will physically take longer to access them.
Big hassle = You'll be less likely to push. 😉
7. Put it in another room 🕳️
If you're working on an important task, put your phone in another room.
No joke, really. 💪🏼
Believe me your laziness is bigger than your addiction, so you won't get up to pick up your phone just to spin it a little.
You know, it would be a lot of energy... ⚡️
8. Motivational wallpaper to remind you 🧠
Set a motivational wallpaper to remind you of the path you're on.
For me, this is one of my favorites.
It's no coincidence that I've "finished" my 5th book this year.
9. Widgets 🪄
Finally, it's good to see where we are at! That's why it's worth posting your current screen time as a Widget.
"What gets measured, gets managed." ~ Peter Drucker
📕Book recommendations: Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker is an insanely cool book. It's Tai Lopez's favorite book. Peter Drucker is also known as the father of management. He pioneered the field of leadership and productivity. Of course, it's in the BookBase! 🎧
So, you're constantly in front of you and you can see how well you're following the path you've set.
Other tips:
Turn off FaceID or TouchID 🚫
Set a long Passcode 📟
Always log out of your Social Media profile so you have to log back in to use it ✋
If you're really hardcore, use the Blank Spaces App so you'll have a "dumb" phone, that's what I'm experimenting with right now 😳
This is what my phone looks like:
I honestly believe that if you do these, there is no way your screen time won't decrease.
The question is by how much!
It's not the 1 hour you experience today that will count, it's the 3000 x 1 hours that will add up over the years!
Set a serious goal for yourself and work on it for the next 3 months to achieve it! 🔥
So, let's recap...
✅ What exactly do you do?
[ ] First step, understand the why of your addiction. 🤔
[ ] Step two, set a serious goal for the next 3 months. 🎯
[ ] Step three, set App limits for your most used Apps in your settings. 📉
[ ] Step four, download the Opal App. 📥
[ ] Step five, set the limits in it. ⚙️
[ ] Step six, now you can customize the "Do Not Disturb" mode. You know, only those notifications that serve your progress will be kept. 🌙
[ ] Step seven, write down when Black and White mode would be useful. 🔲
[ ] Step eight, set up your automations in the "Shortcuts" App. 📱
[ ] Step nine, make some folders to stash your Social Media apps in. 🗂️
[ ] Step ten, set a motivational wallpaper to remind you of the path you are on. 🖼️
[ ] Eleventh step, finally, put a "Screen Time" Widget on the main page to keep your current status in front of you. 📊
Come back in 3 months and let us know in the Comments how this Challenge went!
💡Side note: It's extra helpful if you set a reminder in your calendar for this now.
🔥 Biggest obstacle
Keeping up with the boys.
They just move at such a pace that I have to tie my pants up properly to keep up. And we're not just talking about work tasks here, we're also talking about self-improvement.📚
Week after week they come up with completely new things and so I have to improve too!
It's just another proof of how much you are influenced by your environment. 🔥
When you're surrounded by "A players", there's no way they don't motivate you to level up.
Perhaps, what is more challenging is documenting your existing processes. 🎥
And aggregating our video content into a database that is accessible to all.
If you know a good way to do this, please let me know! 🙏🏻
👷🏼♂️Fix It Friday
Edu is known to love go-karting, but there's only one thing he loves more than go-karting...
Speed! ⚡️
That's how he fixed the loading of the Covers. ✅
They appear in half a second after the first load.
💡 Side note: The visual perception of the brain is 0.25 seconds. Anything below that is thought to be instant, so just hammer on it a bit more Edu and it'll be instant!
Also, Search has got a Boost. ✅
Now it will return the book you want with much fewer matches. 🔍
Ergo, you don't have to mess with looking up the exact title.
I know how annoying that was... 😄
📖 What have I read now?
I read a book called "Crossing the Chasm" by Geoffrey A Moore. Which specifically describes how innovative Startups like us can reach the general public. It was a pretty dry read, but it reinforced 1-2 things.
🎧 What have I just listened to?
This is a cool video about Blank Space, that's why I downloaded it.
Or Sean Oulashin on Instagram is also prominent on this topic.
✍🏼 Top quote
"It's okay to own technology, but it's not okay for technology to own you. " ~ Abhijit Naskar