hey friend, it’s your friend: jack 👋. Today I wanted to share with you a short and sweet guide I’ve been writing.

This guide may be different from the typical advice you’ve heard on stopping doom scrolling, but it shows the entire filosophy of valuing curiosity.

We’ll go over:

• How to end your consumption addiction (the new path) allowing you to focus more on what matters most

• Getting on the path and understanding how to move forward

• Staying on the path and becoming a more consistent enjoyer of life

• How to start today because “tomorrow” never comes

• + More tips for the journey to bulletproof your success

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes, 33 seconds

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Creation log weekly update (you can skip if you want!)

This last week has been a tipping point in my self belief, I created somethings (Curiosity Quench and My book) and quite a few people have bought and enjoyed those things.

Making $10 a day on the internet can change your entire world view quite rapidly! (it’s weird I know, but it’s true)

Speaking of $$, I’m making Curiosity Quench a more of less paid app this week, on this note I’ve been working on this very guide to ensure I can help more people scroll less and redesigning the app to make it much more sexy and simple (so people actually want to use the app!).

I also launched a birthday special 🥳 and witnessed 10+ people buy either my book or a lifetime membership to Curiosity quench, it made me really rethink how much I’ve been underestimating myself. “If I can do this, what else can I do?”

I’ve still been making daily videos on creations over on YouTube and logs of making Curiosity Quench on Instagram every day, there is an abundance of kind people supporting me: “Keep going!” — these kind comments are incredibly valuable to me, so thank you to those people.

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Yes You Can!

Two hours a day on your phone may not feel like much on any given day, but it adds up quickly.

Maybe you already know this, maybe you don’t. Here’s something you definitely should know… You have ~4000 weeks in your lifetime (76 years old). What does a week count for? Well, one single week makes up for ~2% of each year.

Two hours a day every day means you’re missing out on 30 days of your year. In other words: just over 4 weeks. Meaning if you scroll for 2 hours mindlessly each day, you will miss out on 8% of your year. Yes, a whole frikin month.

And now you’re here. You want to stop scrolling… or scroll less. In general: put an end to your mindless consumption habits.

You can stop scrolling, certainly you can. But what you really want is to become someone else. Someone who doesn’t scroll. A non-scroller, a life enjoyer, a maximalist of time, a lover of doing.

Good news, great news actually: You can. You are entirely capable.

Ready to rumble? Think you can do it? Yes, you can!

. . .

The new path to breaking free

The typical advice for someone consuming too much goes something like “NO, STOP THAT! THAT’S BAD FOR YOU!!” or “You know that there are a million other things you could be doing right now, right?” or “Block all your apps, delete them, then you can’t use them anymore!” All of these sorts of advice may be many parts effective even, yet they miss the most important mark.

They miss the why, and they miss the proper focus. These together are the basis for real change to transpire. If you want to scroll less, you already have your own worst critic inside of your head telling you such is bad and you should feel ashamed for doing the thing you told yourself you want to do less of. You already have an inner monologue of “don’t do that”, but that isn’t enough, and it won’t truly bring anyone out of such a consumptive slump.

To condemn someone, or yourself, to judge: this is not the way to enforce retribution nor a path to revelations. The true path I have found is to focus on your why, and to find things you are genuinely more interested in then consuming mindlessly.

Instead of forcing ourselves to delete the apps, gathering pure willpower , or condemning ourselves, let us try this new path… (you can still make your phone and or devices less tempting, it won’t hurt either)

The new path to breaking free: This path is a potion mixed together, combining “focus on what you want to see more of” + “follow your curiosity”. This is where your biggest interests and passions will be discovered, which are always unique to you.

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Getting on the new path

To get on this new path we first need to look at what curiosity is, and why it’s important. Once you’re on the path, I’ll tell you how to stay on the path using your directed focus in the next section.

“Success in anything is just a byproduct of learning, and learning is a byproduct of curiosity. Ultimately, if you are curious about something, you will be successful at it, and the more curious you are about it, the more successful you will be at it.” – Naval Ravikant

Inherit this above message into your world view. Now, can you see how this alt path of following curiosity could lead us to stop scrolling? To do more of what we enjoy in all parts of our lives? And do less of what we don’t enjoy or find interesting? Can you see it? 

If you’re curious about something, it means you’re interested. And if you’re really interested, then  learning is the natural flow. No one needs to tell you to learn more, if you’re interested, if you’re really curious: you just will. If you’re really interested in something… You will no longer be consumed by consumptive habits, you will be consumed with learning, with trials of your own will. And this is the new path. The new path is to do things you are genuinely interested in and curious about so that you can find things you'd rather be doing anyhow than scrolling.

This is not a foolproof path, but this is our path that we must focus on if we want to become someone else, our ideal selves. Now, we only must stay on it.

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Staying on the path

Who are you now and how does the person you wish to become differ? 

In order to become whomever that you wish to become: you must first be able to imagine yourself capable. If you can imagine yourself becoming who you wish to be then you have already overcome half the battle. 

So who do you want to become? Whomever you wish to become, chances are: you can. Will you? I’m not sure yet, but I know you can. In some world, maybe even this one, you can. Yes, you can.

Becoming a non scroller

        It sounds to me,
        That you would like to be,
        Not just someone who,
        Deletes the apps,
        But someone who,
        Will not come back.
        Someone new.
        ———

How do you become someone new? Well you first stop trying to become someone else. You focus on where you want to go and not where you want to escape. If your goal is to stop scrolling or consuming then you must focus on where it is you wish to escape to. You must focus on where you’re going! 

Imagine you’re trying to learn how to play the piano and someone whacks you with an elastic band each time you play a wrong note. You don’t like being whacked, so you develop a fear for playing wrong notes. Soon enough you are only playing wrong notes. In your course to focus on not playing wrong notes, that’s just about all you end up playing.

It’s the same way with trying to stop scrolling, or wanting not to be last in a marathon. You will go where you focus, so focus on where you want to go, not where you are running away from.

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Start walking the path

It’s time to get going! A week is 2% of the year my friend, we must be on our way!

– You know the new path, and how to stay on it, but how can you start walking on such a journey?

The most important part here is to simply internalize how vital your curiosity is for success in learning something, anything really. If you are not curious, you will not be interested, and you will not desire to learn further. You will choose mindless consumption over just about anything you aren’t interested in. So get curious, and get interested!

To internalize this message: try new things, see what interests you, and give yourself some time each day to explore what you actually want to learn more about. Set a timer for 20 minutes, and just dive into something that’s on your mind (a question, a topic, an interest, something you’re curious about!). It could be literally anything: learning how to make a website, making a diagram of how trees give us oxygen, if you’re interested in learning, or doing a thing: do it in this time with no expectation of any result. Just do the thing, anything that sparks your curiosity.

Something else that will help you on your travels is writing things down or keeping a journal of your own thoughts. If you wish to understand yourself and what you are genuinely curious about more deeply than writing will help bring you clarity. If you have a worry, write it out. If you have a question, write it out. If you find yourself curious, write it out. The more you write things out, the further you will think through them, and the more calm and clear minded you will come out on the other side. Note: Doubts and strains are natural to making progress and growth, if you want to go anywhere higher, then you’ll need to stretch. Gather your courage and take on the challenge.

“When you feel overwhelmed with too much to do and not enough time, don’t panic, simply assume that life wants you to grow, remember you are not alone, gather your courage, and take on the challenge.” – @orangebook_ on twitter.

That’s all for now my friend. If you have any suggestions on how I can improve this guide, or comments on which parts you liked: please let me know. I want to make this guide and curiosity quench as helpful as possible, so your feedback is critical to help improve.

Take care, follow your curiosity, love yourself along the way, create cool s**t, encourage others✌️

Your friend,
jack ♠️

Bonus resources

If you want to explore 500+ different interests and curiosities with actionable plans, laid out step by step: try Curiosity Quench (yes, this is an app I made under the thesis I just told you above). If you can’t afford it, shoot me a mail: jack@frikit.net, I'll make sure you can.

Additional tips:

- Make your biggest temptation to consume more boring. It can still help a great deal to set up your phone or other device intentionally so there is overall less temptation, especially as you transition to becoming your ideal self. Example: I took all the apps off my home screen for my phone and just put the three apps I want to use on the bottom bar. This way I end up choosing to read instead of opening social media more often.

- Turn off notifications, only allow notifications from messages: everything else can probably wait, and even messages sometimes. I go into d0- not-disturb when I need to focus on work.

- Get your priorities in order: Don’t open social media or email for the first 4 hours of your day, get your things done, do your stuff: create, then consume (what really matters to you?).

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Whenever you're up for it, there are 2 ways I can help you:
You Were Built To Create Cool S**t : Click to start, or don’t…
Curiosity Quench: Quench your curiosity, destroy your scroll —addiction— and get on a roll.