Creating Friction
To align behavior with long-term goals, deliberately increase the effort required for actions that undermine those goals, making desirable behaviors the path of least resistance.
THE IDEA
If an easy distraction repeatedly displaces important work, make the distraction harder to start. Logging out of an app, keeping a phone in another room, or blocking a site during a work session adds a step between the impulse and the action.
Choose an obstacle that addresses the behavior you actually want to change. For email, that might mean closing the inbox until a scheduled time. A public commitment with a modest penalty adds a social or financial cost instead of a physical barrier.
Try the change and observe what happens. If you bypass the obstacle or replace the distraction with another one, adjust the setup. Friction can support a choice, but it does not ensure that the alternative behavior will follow.
When to use it
Reduce digital distractions: remove social media apps from home screen or log out each time, requiring password re-entry.
Support saving by automating transfers and adding a deliberate review step before discretionary withdrawals.
Support healthy eating: store snacks in inconvenient places or prep healthy meals in advance so they are the quickest option.
Support exercise attendance by choosing a class with a cancellation policy that makes skipping a planned session more costly.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Delaying Email to Prioritize Deep Work
A professional had a major report to write but kept defaulting to checking email first thing in the morning. He told colleagues that until the report was submitted, he would buy them lunch if they caught him with his email open before 11:00 a.m. The added social and financial friction (not wanting to lose money or face) made it easier to resist email, freeing mornings for focused report writing.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
What unimportant activity do you default to when you should be doing high-priority work? What specific friction could you add to make that activity harder?
Think of a situation where the most important thing in your life (a project, a person) gets the worst of you. How could redesigning the environment change that?
When have you effortlessly done the right thing because it was the easiest option? How can you replicate that design?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Clear Thinking Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results (Shane Parrish)