The Cocaine Dealer's Dilemma

Hey there, solopreneur!

With the upcoming birth of my child (next month!), I decided to make a truthful assessment of how I spend my time.

I don't want to waste my life on anything that's not helping me get where I want to go or that's not directly connected to being with my family.

But the truth hurt:

I’ve been losing countless hours each day arguing on social media or scrolling my life away for "inspiration" that never materialized into anything real.

Look, this is an ongoing battle, and I'm by no means perfect.

In fact, creating healthier tech habits has been WAY harder than I imagined it would be. Some days I still catch myself mindlessly scrolling or checking my phone 50+ times.

But I've been making steady improvements that have genuinely changed my relationship with technology. And with my child on the way, the stakes feel higher than ever.

So today, I'm sharing the exact habit and mindset shifts that are working for me.

These are practical steps you can implement immediately to take back control of your attention and build a healthier relationship with technology.

No perfectionism required, just progress…

No Phone Before 11 AM

Every time I check my phone first thing in the morning, the day is up for a bad start already.

It's like the mental equivalent of eating candy for breakfast - you're training your brain to crave that hit of dopamine before you've even brushed your teeth.

Your dopamine baseline responds and adjusts to early exposure to things like social media. Once you've had that morning hit, everything else feels... boring. Flat. Even the important work you should be doing.

The morning should be for deep work and thinking without external stimulation and input. This is when your brain is freshest and most capable of focused attention.

My practical solution:

• Using a physical alarm clock instead of my phone

• Getting a dedicated MP3 player for working out, so I don't "need" my phone for that either

• Keeping my phone in a different room until I've completed my most important task of the day

This one change has probably had the biggest impact on my productivity and mental clarity. Those first few hours of the day now feel like they're actually mine again.

Boomerang to Batch My Email

I use the Boomerang tool, a free plug-in for Gmail, to batch all my emails.

Once a day, I press a button and it delivers all the emails at once to my inbox – kind of like a mailman would hand in your mail at home.

This prevents me from excessively checking my email because I know I won't get any of them anyway. No more of that compulsive inbox refreshing that interrupts your flow state every 5 minutes.

The psychological effect is surprisingly powerful. When you know nothing new can arrive, you stop anticipating it. Your brain can actually focus on the task at hand instead of constantly wondering "what if something important just came in?"

Here’s the link (no affiliation)

Work on Something Important 1st Thing in the Morning

I'm not here to tell you to do deep work for five hours each day – I don't do it myself.

But something that's worked quite well for me is to start the day with one big task before I start interacting with the world.

It's the classic Tim Ferriss question: which problem can I solve right now that will make this day feel like a win?

Usually it's something where you feel some kind of friction. And usually this is where we drift off to using socials or email to distract ourselves from the tasks that we know we should finish first.

I've been using a different profile on my Mac specifically for deep work – it has no notifications, no email, no social media apps, and a very minimal setup. This creates a completely different mental environment when I switch to it.

No Social Media Apps on My Phone

This seems like an obvious one, but uninstalling all social media apps from your phone is already a massive step in the right direction.

I'm even thinking about getting rid of WhatsApp on my phone and telling people to message me on iMessage or call me if they need something urgently.

Because let's be honest, we also use WhatsApp as a dopamine-seeking behavior. And especially if you're part of WhatsApp groups, it also becomes this almost compulsive behavior to check them.

The first few days without social apps were uncomfortable – I found myself reaching for my phone and then having that moment of "oh right, there's nothing to check." But after a week, it felt like my brain was recalibrating.

If you're worried about missing out, remember: you can still access everything from your computer during designated times. You're just removing the ability to mindlessly check during every moment of downtime.

50% Grayscale

I've discovered the perfect middle ground for reducing phone addiction: 50% grayscale.

Full grayscale makes some apps unusable, but 50% dulls the dopamine hit without sacrificing functionality.

Those carefully designed notification reds and engagement blues lose their psychological power when muted. Suddenly, your phone becomes far less compelling as an entertainment device.

Here's how you do it (for iPhone):

1. Go to Settings

2. Search “Color Filters”

3. Press Grayscale

4. Slide the bar halfway

Pro tip: Connect it to a shortcut on your phone, like pressing the side button three times. This is how I've done it.

YT Watch History Analysis

At the end of each week (or even each day if you consume a lot of content), go through your watch history and ask yourself:

• How many of these videos do you actively remember watching?

• Which of these videos provided actual value for you?

The results are humbling. Usually just 10-20% of what I consume creates any lasting value.

Then ask yourself: what is the template or format of these videos that provide value for you?

This simple audit helps you become more intentional about what you consume. You start to recognize patterns in what's actually enriching your life versus what's just empty calories for your brain.

Comment Batching

I used to think I needed to be constantly active on social platforms to maintain visibility. Comment here, reply there, engage everywhere – the algorithm gods demanded sacrifice.

What I didn't realize was how much life I was sacrificing at that altar.

Each innocent check-in would expand into a 20-minute scroll session. Those brief moments scattered throughout the day were silently adding up to hours of lost focus.

My solution now is ruthlessly simple: two dedicated blocks for all social engagement. Morning and evening. Fifteen minutes each. Timer set.

The revelation? Nearly everything fits within these windows. The world doesn't end when I'm not instantly replying to every mention.

Yes, my engagement metrics might take a slight hit. But I've decided that algorithm optimization isn't worth the tax it charges on my attention and presence.

Readwise Reader

Here's a tool that's completely transformed how I consume online content: Readwise Reader (also unaffiliated).

I use it for most of my reading now – forwarding all interesting articles, email newsletters, essays, and other content directly here.

When the urge to scroll hits, I open Readwise instead of Twitter or Instagram.

The difference is profound. Instead of consuming whatever an algorithm decides to feed me, I'm scrolling through content I've intentionally selected.

It's my personally curated feed rather than one designed to hijack my attention.

What I Want to Try Next

1. YouTube Longform Filter

Once you understand what kind of content is actually helpful to you, you can build a little tool that filters your feed for you.

I want to create a simple filter that only shows YouTube videos that are at least one hour long. This would naturally screen out most of the low-value content that tends to waste my time.

2. AI Comment Management (NOT AI commenting)

I still spend too much time blocking people or checking profiles to see if someone is relevant for me. That seems like a perfect use case for an AI agent.

I'm exploring a tool that reads my comments, blocks obvious trolls, and notifies me only when someone interesting messages me.

I'm really bullish on using AI agents to spend less time with tech, not only to be more productive.

But I will never let an AI agent comment back in my name. This sucks the soul

of your social profile.

3. Creating Without Consuming

A more extreme approach I'm intrigued by is going into creation-only mode.

I've heard that Tim Ferriss maintains his social media this way - he only produces content but never consumes it. That's extremely interesting.

This will probably lead to more unique content because you're not influenced by everyone else. The risk of irrelevance seems smaller than the much higher risk of sameness from constant consumption.

The most powerful productivity change isn't some complex system:

It's simply refusing to be harvested by the attention economy.

For us creators, it's like being a cocaine dealer sitting at your table with this huge pile of cocaine, and every day you just have to test a little bit to see if the quality is right.

But at the same time, you shouldn't get addicted to it.

The metaphor sounds extreme until you understand these platforms trigger the same reward pathways and craving mechanisms as addictive substances. Your brain can't tell the difference between a notification and a hit.

I've felt the benefits of strategic social media use. The audience growth, the business opportunities.

But this is precisely where the danger lurks. The line between strategic use and dependency blurs easily.

If my livelihood didn't depend on these platforms, I'd likely walk away entirely. The bargain feels increasingly costly.

By the way…

Would you be interested in learning the most effective ways to use social media as leverage while keeping your dependency on it at a minimum?

Please reply if this topic is interesting to you.

I'm considering diving deeper into this subject, maybe even creating a more comprehensive guide on intentional digital consumption while still growing your online presence.

Ole's Bookmarks

Its a clear trend of people wanting to disconnect more. Check out these subreddits!

Great overview here

This podcast blew my mind- it’s insane to understand what kind of VOLUME the biggest creators like Hormozi use. His method for content is insanely valuable.

My new evening routine consist of absolutely nothing. try it!

My first week in Berlin is over and yesterday I went to Europe Techno Optimist meetup at Aurea Berlin. I was amazing to meet so many cool builders, thanks to everyone who came by to say hi. I will organize another more private meetup soon.

See you next week 🫡 

Ole

PS: Wow i didnt expect over 160 people to join the waitlist so fast. If you want to eliminate AI-generated slop and hate comments on your X feed, join here.