Why You Can't Stop Scrolling and How to Fix It
Summary
TLDRThis video discusses the issue of 'doom scrolling' and its impact on our attention span and real-world engagement. The speaker shares personal strategies to break free from this habit, emphasizing the importance of creating content over consuming it, finding a 'bigger why', and focusing on personal growth and meaningful activities.
Takeaways
- π Half of the viewers might not finish watching the video, reflecting a common issue with short attention spans and the habit of endlessly scrolling through content.
- π The speaker admits to being a 'doom scroller' and suggests that this behavior is widespread, indicating a need for change in how we consume digital content.
- π Realizing that it's impossible to keep up with all the content from everyone you follow is a crucial first step in breaking the cycle of endless scrolling.
- π‘ Having a 'bigger why' or a strong personal motivation can help in making changes to reduce screen time and focus on more meaningful activities.
- π Creating more than consuming is a strategy that can help shift focus from passive consumption to active creation, potentially leading to personal growth and fulfillment.
- π€ Sharing knowledge and expertise in areas you are passionate about can not only bring joy but also build a community and potentially lead to financial opportunities.
- πΌ Selling your skills by creating valuable content or products can be a way to monetize your passions and knowledge, turning hobbies into income sources.
- π Learning and applying new skills, such as web development or content creation, can be a productive use of time instead of mindlessly scrolling, potentially leading to new career paths or business ventures.
- π‘ Finding work that aligns with your passions can be a fulfilling way to spend time, making it easier to resist the lure of endless scrolling and focus on meaningful activities.
- π οΈ Sometimes, taking drastic measures like putting your phone away or using 'do not disturb' mode is necessary to break the habit of constant digital distraction and focus on real-world experiences.
Q & A
What is the main issue discussed in the video script?
-The main issue discussed is the habit of 'doom scrolling' on phones and social media, and how it affects people's attention span and real-life experiences.
Why does the speaker believe that many people won't finish watching the video?
-The speaker believes that due to the trained habit of losing attention span, many viewers might get distracted and click away to something else before the video ends.
What mindset shifts are suggested to help stop the 'doom scrolling' habit?
-The mindset shifts suggested include realizing the impossibility of keeping up with all content, finding a 'bigger why' to motivate change, and focusing on creating more than consuming.
What does the speaker mean by 'having a bigger why'?
-'Having a bigger why' refers to identifying a strong personal reason or goal that is more compelling than the habit of doom scrolling, which can help in breaking the addiction.
How does the speaker propose to replace the habit of doom scrolling?
-The speaker suggests replacing doom scrolling with the habit of creating content, sharing knowledge, selling skills, or learning new skills related to one's interests.
What is an example of creating content as suggested by the speaker?
-An example of creating content is sharing knowledge about a topic one is passionate about, such as starting a blog, an Instagram account, or a YouTube channel.
What is the significance of selling one's skills according to the script?
-Selling one's skills is significant as it allows individuals to share what they love and are knowledgeable about, potentially making money from it, and replacing the habit of consuming with creating value.
Can you provide an example of how someone can sell their skills from the script?
-An example given is writing an ebook on a subject one is knowledgeable about and repackaging that knowledge into a valuable product that others are willing to pay for.
What is the importance of learning new skills as mentioned in the video script?
-Learning new skills is important as it can lead to personal growth, new career opportunities, and can replace unproductive habits like doom scrolling with productive activities.
How does the speaker address the issue of feeling overwhelmed by the amount of content available?
-The speaker acknowledges that it's impossible to consume all content and suggests focusing on creating one's own content and finding a personal 'why' to stay motivated.
What steps can someone take if they find their doom scrolling habit getting out of control according to the script?
-The speaker suggests putting the phone in another room, using 'Do Not Disturb' mode, and engaging in activities that make one feel alive, such as exercise, spending time with loved ones, or pursuing hobbies.
Outlines
π£ Overcoming Doom Scrolling
The speaker begins by addressing the common issue of 'doom scrolling' - the habit of endlessly scrolling through social media, which often leads to a loss of focus and time. They acknowledge that many viewers may not watch the entire video despite their initial interest, as they are already preoccupied with the desire to reduce phone usage. The speaker shares their own experience with this habit and sets the stage for discussing strategies to shift away from this behavior, including realizing the impossibility of keeping up with the constant influx of content and finding a 'bigger why' to motivate change.
π€ Mindset Shifts and Creating Value
This paragraph delves into the mindset shifts necessary to stop the addiction to doom scrolling. The speaker emphasizes the futility of trying to keep up with the endless stream of content from various social media platforms and the importance of identifying a compelling reason to change this habit. They introduce the concept of creating more than consuming, suggesting that by sharing knowledge or skills, individuals can find fulfillment and potentially monetize their passions. The speaker provides examples of how they have personally benefited from this approach and encourages viewers to consider what they are passionate about and how they can share that with others.
πΌ Monetizing Passion and Learning New Skills
The speaker explores the idea of turning one's interests into a source of income by selling skills or knowledge. They argue that most people have more expertise in a particular area than they realize and can leverage this to create value for others, which can lead to financial gain. Examples such as creating an eBook, starting a blog, or developing an online course are given to illustrate how one can package and sell their knowledge. The speaker also touches on the potential of e-commerce and the importance of marketing in conjunction with creation. They conclude by suggesting that learning a new skill can be a fulfilling alternative to aimless scrolling, offering various online resources and tools for skill development.
π Encouraging Engagement and Community Support
In the final paragraph, the speaker offers additional resources for those interested in pursuing content creation or expanding their online presence. They mention a 7-Day free course for starting on YouTube and an upcoming community aimed at supporting creators. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of engagement on the platform, encouraging viewers to like and subscribe to support the channel's growth. This paragraph serves as a call to action, providing practical next steps for viewers who are motivated to make changes in their digital habits.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Doom scrolling
π‘Attention span
π‘Mindset shifts
π‘Content consumption
π‘Bigger why
π‘Creating value
π‘Knowledge sharing
π‘Skill monetization
π‘E-commerce
π‘High-value skills
π‘Digital detox
Highlights
Statistically, about half of the viewers may not finish watching the video despite their initial interest.
The speaker admits to being a 'doom scroller' and discusses the impact of social media on attention span and real-life engagement.
The importance of realizing the impossibility of keeping up with the constant influx of content across various platforms is emphasized.
A shift in mindset is necessary to stop the 'doom scrolling' addiction, which includes understanding the futility of trying to consume all available content.
The concept of having a 'bigger why' is introduced as a motivational factor to change habits and reduce screen time.
The speaker shares personal strategies for shifting away from doom scrolling, including creating more than consuming.
Sharing knowledge on a topic one is passionate about can lead to finding a community and personal excitement.
The idea of selling one's skill or knowledge is presented as a way to monetize passions and interests.
An example is given of an ebook called 'Refactoring UI' which made over $1 million by repackaging existing knowledge.
The potential for smaller creators with a targeted audience to achieve six-figure salaries is highlighted.
The speaker encourages finding and building a community around a shared obsession and offering valuable products or services to them.
Various examples of online businesses are provided to inspire viewers to consider different avenues for creating value.
The importance of learning how to create and sell oneself and ideas is underlined as a lead funnel for any venture.
The option of finding a new skill or passion to pursue as a form of work is discussed as a way to replace screen time.
Resources such as YouTube channels and websites are mentioned as free learning tools for developing high-value skills.
The speaker suggests taking drastic measures like putting the phone in another room to combat excessive screen time.
Engaging in activities that make one feel alive, such as cold plunges, walking, or playing with family, is recommended over doom scrolling.
A 7-Day free course and a community for small creators are mentioned as resources to help grow and expand one's reach in content creation.
The video concludes with a reminder to like and subscribe for support on the YouTube platform.
Transcripts
statistically speaking about half of you
will not finish this video even though
you clicked on it because you want to
spend less time on your phone you're
probably already thinking about is this
video worth watching to the end you're
thinking about scrolling clicking away
to something else opening up your phone
if you're watching it on your laptop and
that's because we have slowly been
trained to lose our attention span not
only that to live a large portion of Our
Lives based off other people and I've
fallen into this trap way too often of
not actually living in the real world
but letting especially my phone and
other things just completely control my
life spending hours every day either
trying to feel productive or just like
escaping reality in this video I kind of
wanted to share how I have shifted away
from Doom scrolling and keeping up with
the news and following other people into
actually improving my life so if you're
actually interested in stopping Doom
scrolling and improving your life then
maybe watch through the entire video and
don't be part of the 50% Doom scrolling
Doom scrolling Doom scrolling Doom
scrolling I have been a doom scroller
since Doom scrolling came into existence
are we all doomed to keep scrolling this
is Che so before I get into what I
actually did to kind of stop this Doom
scrolling addiction there's a few
mindset shifts that needed to happen
first the first off was realizing that I
just can't keep up with stuff because
everybody that you follow whether it's
long form short form Instagram Tik Tok
podcast YouTube they're always going to
have more stuff than you should watch
you should watch every one of my videos
you shouldn't see every post that
somebody makes and a lot of times we get
in this kind of productive mindset of
like I need to keep up with this cuz
then I'm behind and then if I'm behind
I'll have to binge watch a lot of stuff
to catch up and if you do that with
multiple people that can be hours of
your day or week that you're spending
just keeping up with whatever somebody
else is posting and for the most part
well content is great and you can get a
lot of good ideas that can hopefully
improve your life unless you're taking
action on those ideas it will be
completely worthless like even if you
follow through to the end of this video
and you didn't change you didn't stop
Doom scrolling then you just wasted 10
minutes of your life so the first thing
I had to realize was one I couldn't keep
up with everybody and then two having a
bigger why or something that I'm chasing
to stop that addiction because even
though most of us want to stop we want
to spend less time we want to spend more
time in the real world we'd like to have
more money enjoy our vacations more
spend more time with our loved ones
there is a a thing that's keeping you
from doing that and even though you want
to stop you can't but for me the only
way I can you know kind of trick myself
to change my behavior is to have a
bigger why than the thing that I'm
replacing that thing with so just taking
a minute to find out what your why is
for making any change in your life is
going to help some of those habits stick
is it that you're unhappy right now and
you need to make a change is it that you
would like to start that business that
you've never actually started is it I'd
like to spend more time with your family
what is that why for you not too curious
let me know so I don't really like
giving giv advice so I'm just sharing
what has worked for me and that is to
create more than I consume for a lot of
you you're probably not creators right
now and that's okay and that's okay I'm
not telling you to like become a
YouTuber or anything but I want to give
like four examples of things that you
can create that will actually improve
your life whether you want to be a
influencer content creator or not and
how they have helped my life and kind of
replaced this bad habit with one that
like generally made my life better share
your knowledge everybody has something
that they obsess about for me when I
started you know posting stuff on the
internet and consuming a lot less in
turn I was just sharing something that I
was super super super excited about
which was you know Financial
Independence and the fire movement and
saving money all that type of stuff but
everybody has an unfair Advantage
everybody has something that they obsess
about maybe it's like murder mysteries
or friends you are really good at that
or painting pictures or dogs are You The
Boss Dog
on my vein like minimalism saving money
if you pick a topic that you are
extremely passionate about that you
can't shut up about to your friends and
you start sharing it with other people
who are just as excited about it as you
it'll become a place that you can not
only you know find some some passion and
excitement because you're talking about
what you love but you can find a
community even if it's a small one of
other people who are just as excited
about that thing as you whether that's
writing a Blog starting you know an
Instagram or a YouTube YouTube channel
it's not as hard as people think to
actually just start posting in fact if
you're thinking about starting YouTube I
did make a 7-Day free course on like how
to get started on YouTube everybody kind
of thinks it's super complex but really
no matter what you pick don't think
about the channel name don't think about
the art don't think about anything just
post consistently and get P that way
instead of overanalyzing for 6 months
and then never actually taking action
because you think about it and then you
didn't really do it but you couldn't get
the right name and it's all this stuff I
see it over and over and over again
people who are excited and and
passionate about what they're sharing
what they're creating are some of the
happiest people that I know because they
get to talk about what they love every
single day even if nobody's listening
they get to focus on their passion and
putting stuff into the world of value to
themsel and to other people let's talk
about number two sell your skill so I
just talked about sharing things that
you're excited about but how much better
would it be if you could share those
things that you absolutely love and make
money about it now this is an extremely
hard hurdle to get over for a of people
because most people don't think that
they have anything worth sharing but in
reality you know more about something I
would guess than like you know 90% of
other people in fact if you read a
couple books on one subject you're
probably better equipped to talk about
that subject than probably 90% of people
that are posting so you can actually
within you know a couple of months
really hone in on what your value is
that you're adding to people and get
paid to do it whether that's writing an
ebook whether it's posting on social
media making YouTube blog if you can
create something of value money will
find you for instance there's this ebook
called refactoring UI it's a simple book
that shares like design tips and tricks
aimed for designers the author pretty
much just repackaged knowledge that they
already had and back in 2020 the sales
had surpassed $1 million just from this
ebook in fact according to Twitter it
was
$2.3 Million Just One author making one
thing and then Market it now I don't
think most of us are going to make you
know that type of money but even if we
you know got to maybe 1% of that over
the next couple years that's not too bad
in fact I know a lot of smaller creators
who even though they don't have a large
audience maybe they've been going for a
couple years and they have you know
5,000 to 10,000 subscribers they're
making six figure salaries just because
they have a product in a targeted
audience that they are talking to about
that product so if you can find that
community of people who are obsessed
about the same thing you are obsessed
about and then offer them something
super valuable most people would pay for
that because they want valuable stuff
they want to learn things as quickly as
possible and if you can help them with
that it's valuable so now instead of
scrolling on your phone every night you
can read books about things that you're
interested and write things down but you
know what even if YouTube is not your
thing there are so many other businesses
that you can start online I'm going to
try to do a whole video on just
different online businesses that I've
either started or I know other people
who have started but I want to give you
a few examples just as like inspiration
there's this channel called my wife quit
her job where this guy shared how his
wife was able to quit her job by
creating an e-commerce store selling
handkerchiefs online then there's this
other guy called owler online I don't
know where this guy used to post Tech
products on Instagram and people were
always asking him where he bought this
stuff and so after you know he he
created a little bit of a following he
actually started an e-commerce store
called uxl although creating like a
store whether you're using you know
Shopify or whatever else is not the hard
part the hard part is marketing whatever
you have and that's why I come back to
creating as such a lead funnel for
anything that you're thinking about
doing if you can learn how to create and
sell yourself and your ideas once you
provide enough value by talking about
the stuff that you love to an audience
it'll be much easier for you to actually
make sales on those things let's talk
about the last option which is to find
something that you love to do for work
and really obsess and learn a new skill
now I think most people feel like
they're capped on how much they can earn
they don't have time or like energy to
to do other stuff so if you can find a
way to make money doing something that
you love or something that you you know
kind of like that could be a great use
of that time that you normally spend
just scrolling in bed if you can work on
your copyrighting skills if that's
something you want to do there's tons of
YouTube channels and websites that talk
about that stuff for free that you can
learn or maybe you want to learn website
development there are some like no code
tools such as webflow and framer and you
can just like watch tutorials on how to
use those or maybe you've always wanted
to create a mobile app there's tools
that you can use to do that without
knowing how to code like flutter flow
and a Bola thunkable and others again
with any of these high value skills you
can find tutorials on how to do them and
watch those instead of just wasting your
life endlessly scrolling for more and
more stuff you could also just stop this
is something that I have to do from time
to time when my scrolling gets out of
control and even when I'm trying to
create more then you know I consume
sometimes it still happens and in times
like that I literally just have to put
my phone in another room for most of the
day put on Gray skill mode I'll lock it
in a cookie jar I'll get creative with
just stopping living in this digital
world and really trying to go back to
doing something that is actually living
for me I feel most alive when I'm doing
a cold plunge when I'm in the sauna when
I'm going for a walk when I'm playing
with my daughter working out or um you
know for me the thing that excites me
the most is making content actually
shooting something actually creating and
forming this idea that's in my head and
putting it out into the world that's
when I actually feel alive so hopefully
this helps if you are thinking about
starting YouTube again I do have a 7-Day
free course down below you can check
that out I'm also launching a community
that I'm involved with helping small
creators kind of like grow and expand
their reach and just get better at
making videos you can you can check out
that as well and of course don't forget
to like And subscribe because you know
YouTube stuff
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