Prevent Distraction with Effort Pacts
Inventors David Krippendorf and Ryan Tseng came up with a simple way to stop their unwanted habit of late-night snacking on indulgent foods. Their device, kSafe (formerly Kitchen Safe), is a plastic container equipped with a locking timer built into the lid.
Placing your tempting treats (like Oreo cookies, a personal favorite) in the container and setting the kSafe timer locks the container until the timer runs out. Of course, one could smash the container with a hammer or run out to buy some more cookies, but that extra effort makes those choices less likely. Krippendorf and Tseng’s concept was so compelling that it scored a deal on the reality show Shark Tank, and the product now has nearly four hundred five-star reviews on Amazon.
KSafe is an example of a precommitment. Specifically, it demonstrates the usefulness of an effort pact—a kind of precommitment that involves increasing the amount of effort required to perform an undesirable action. This type of precommitment can help us become indistractable.
An effort pact prevents distraction by making unwanted behaviors more difficult to do.
We are experiencing an explosion of new products and services vying to help us make effort pacts with our digital devices. Whenever I write on my laptop, for instance, I click on the SelfControl app, which blocks my access to a host of distracting websites like Facebook and Reddit, as well as my email account. I can set it to block these sites for as much time as I need, typically in forty-five-minute to one-hour increments. Another app called Freedom is a bit more sophisticated and blocks potential distractions not only on my computer but also on mobile devices.
Forest, perhaps my favorite distraction-proofing app, is one I find myself using nearly every day. Every time I want to make an effort pact with myself to avoid getting distracted on my phone, I open the Forest app and set my desired length of phone-free time. As soon as I hit a button marked Plant, a tiny seedling appears on the screen and a timer starts counting down. If I attempt to switch tasks on my phone before the timer runs out, my virtual tree dies. The thought of killing the little virtual tree adds just enough extra effort to discourage me from tapping out of the app—a visible reminder of the pact I’ve made with myself.
Apple and Google are also joining the crusade against digital distractions by adding effort pact capabilities to their operating systems. Apple’s iOS 12 allows users to schedule time constraints for certain apps through its Downtime function. If users attempt to access a listed app during specified hours, the phone prompts the user to take an additional step in order to confirm that they want to break their pact. Newer versions of Google’s Android come with Digital Wellbeing features that provide similar functionality.
Adding a bit of additional effort forces us to ask if a distraction is worth it. Whether with the help of a product like kSafe or an app like Forest, effort pacts are not limited to those we make with ourselves; another highly effective way to forge them involves making pacts with other people.
The Forest app is a simple way to make an effort pact on your phone.
In previous generations, social pressure helped us stay on task—before the invention of the personal computer, procrastinating at our desks was obvious to the entire office. Reading a copy of Sports Illustrated or Vogue or recapping the details of our long weekend while on the phone with a friend sent clear signals to our colleagues that we were slacking off.
In contrast, few people today can see what we’re scrolling through or clicking on while at the office. Hunched over our laptops, we find ourselves checking sports scores, news feeds, or celebrity gossip headlines throughout the workday. To a passerby, these acts look just the same as performing competitive research or following up on sales leads. Disguised by the privacy of our screens, the social pressure to stay on task disappears.
The problem becomes more acute when we work remotely. Since I tend to work from home, I find it all too easy to get off track when I know I should be writing. Perhaps bringing back a bit of social pressure when I’m having trouble staying focused could be helpful? I put the question to the test and asked my friend Taylor, a fellow author, to co-work with me. Most mornings, we sat at adjacent desks in my home office and agreed to work in timed sprints of forty-five minutes. Seeing him hard at work, particularly at times when I found myself losing steam, and knowing that he could see me, kept me doing the work I knew I needed to do. Scheduling time with a friend for focused work proved to be an effective way to commit to doing what mattered most.
But what if you can’t find a colleague with a compatible schedule? When Taylor went away to speak at a conference for a week, I needed to re-create the experience of making an effort pact with another person. Thankfully, I found Focusmate. With a vision to help people around the world stay focused, they facilitate effort pacts via a one-to-one video conferencing service.
While Taylor was away, I signed up at Focusmate.com and was paired with a Czech medical school student named Martin. Because I knew he would be waiting for me to co-work at our scheduled time, I didn’t want to let him down. While Martin was hard at work memorizing human anatomy, I stayed focused on my writing. To discourage people from skipping their meeting times, participants are encouraged to leave a review of their focus mate.5
Effort pacts make us less likely to abandon the task at hand. Whether we make them with friends and colleagues, or via tools like Forest, SelfControl, Focusmate, or kSafe, effort pacts are a simple yet highly effective way to keep us from getting distracted.
REMEMBER THIS
• An effort pact prevents distraction by making unwanted behaviors more difficult to do.
• In the age of the personal computer, social pressure to stay on task has largely disappeared. No one can see what you’re working on, so it’s easier to slack off. Working next to a colleague or friend for a set period of time can be a highly effective effort pact.
• You can use tech to stay off tech. Apps like SelfControl, Forest, and Focusmate can help you make effort pacts.
5 I liked the service so much that I decided to invest in Focusmate.