Some people are able to control urges but I’m much better off just removing the objects of desire entirely. In high school this manifested in me spending way too much time on video games. These days it’s buying a bag of potato chips and then being unable to stop once I crack it up. I tried giving TikTok a go to see what all the fuss was about but had to drop it cold turkey after realizing that I was spending too much time on it.

Being able to control your impulses is an especially valuable skill these days due to both modern distractions and COVID’s effect on our willpower. I envy those that are able to keep their temptations in check but I’ve learned to just drop them cold turkey.

I’ve tried tackling these by having a more quantitative review of how I spend my time in order to hold myself accountable but there’s always more to do. I’m loath to push for technology solutions to this but it does feel as if there’s an opportunity for products to start off being extremely addicting at first and then become frustrating after too much time is spent. The pay to play games come to mind since once you exhaust your credits there’s significant friction to keep going - can this model work for other temptations? That’s something that I would pay for.