When boundaries aren't enough to keep you from picking up your phone, you might need this.

This mini-episode taken from my latest article in the Digital Essentialism Series on Substack pulls back the curtain on the likes, comments, and compulsive urge to reach for your damn phone 205 times a day, all to uncover a deeper question: What might you be avoiding with your attention? From digital essentialism to deep work rituals, from messy garages to meaning, we dig into why we avoid the blank page, why we panic when life pauses, and why being “CrAAAAAAAAAAzy busy!!!!!” keeps us from confronting purpose, values, and meaningful goals. If you can only call something a distraction when you know what it’s distracting you from — do you really know? If you enjoyed this article and you don't want to miss my future essays, my actionable insights, and my soapbox rants about navigating the world as analog humans in today's digital hellscape, make sure to

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When boundaries aren't enough to keep you from picking up your phone, you might need this. is an episode from Optimize Yourself by Zack Arnold.

This episode is 10:39 long.

This episode was published on Dec 8, 2025.

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