Create More. Consume Less.

Your screen time is stealing your creative output.

Links:

• If your side-hustle feels worse than a job, you’re doing something wrong.

• This post includes a very clever way to use AI to refine who you’re writing for.

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You probably think you spent 30 minutes scrolling this morning.

Check your screen time. I’ll wait.

A few years ago, I sat down to watch “a few videos” on social media. Got up thinking I’d wasted an hour. Checked the clock. Four hours gone. That’s when I realized I’d lost control of my attention.

Here’s the thing. That wasn’t my fault. It’s not yours either.

These platforms employ psychologists, data scientists, and behavioral engineers whose entire job is capturing and controlling your attention. They’re really good at it. The algorithm knows what keeps you watching better than you do.

While it’s not our fault, we are the one’s responsible for taking back control.

Standard creator advice tells you to “just be more disciplined” or “time block better.”

That’s like telling someone to swim harder when there’s a riptide. You’re not fighting your willpower. You’re fighting a billion-dollar attention extraction machine.

The fix is simpler than you think.

Digital minimalism.

Remove everything that doesn’t directly help you build what you’re trying to create.

I barely touch my phone now. When I’m online, I’m researching or working. Not because I have superhuman discipline, but because I deleted the things designed to trap me.

Your internet time should serve two purposes: learning something specific or building something tangible. Everything else is theft.

Look at your phone right now. What apps are stealing hours while pretending to give you minutes?

Delete them. Not tomorrow. Right now.