You picked this up without deciding to.
Stop compulsive phone checking, rebuild your attention, and keep the phone you actually need.
What the book does for you
Not a detox. Not a thirty-day cleanse. Not a month without your phone.
You keep the smartphone.
Maps, messages, banking, work, camera, tickets, the people you love. All of it stays. This is not a detox.
A better measure than screen time.
Screen time counts hours. It cannot tell forty minutes you chose from six minutes that happened to you. You learn to see the difference.
Find the one loop costing you most.
Most people try to fix everything and fix nothing. There is usually one pattern doing the damage. Finding it is most of the work.
Stop relying on willpower.
Every method changes the conditions around the behaviour instead of asking you to want it more. That is what survives a hard week.
Learn how the hooks were built.
By someone who builds the apps on your phone. Once you see why the protective setting is buried four levels deep, you stop reading your own behaviour as weak character.
A plan for the days it breaks.
Every system fails sometimes. The book treats that as expected and tells you how to recover in a day instead of quitting.
Why this book exists
I knew how a notification decides to interrupt you, because I have written the code that sends them. I knew exactly how much a single removed step changes what a person does next. I knew all of that. And I was still reaching.
Fifteen years building mobile software. My wife and I could sit a metre apart most evenings and still keep leaving the room without moving. If understanding were enough, I should have been one of the safest people in the room. I was not. So I stopped asking for more willpower and redesigned the system instead.
Inside
- The SHIFT framework, in full
- Lost Intention, a measure that beats screen time
- Step-by-step iPhone and Android walkthroughs
- Seven case studies
- A seven-day field test
- A ninety-day maintenance plan
- Five printable field cards
- 139 pages, read it in one sitting
Read the first chapter free
The prologue and chapter one in full, plus what the book covers. No method, no worksheets, just enough to tell you whether the problem it describes is yours. No email required.
PDF, 12 pages from a 139-page book. Share it with anyone.
Two ways to get it
Buy direct and you get the worksheets as well. Buy on Amazon and you get Amazon.
The complete kit
on Gumroad
- The full bookPDF and EPUB, 139 pages
- The printable packsix worksheets, A4 and US Letter
- The three-column logas a real sheet, not a paragraph
- Instant downloadno account, no app, no waiting
Paperback or Kindle
on Amazon
- The paperback139 pages, 6 by 9 inches
- The Kindle editionreads on any Kindle app
- Amazon delivery and returnsand Look Inside before you buy
- No printable packthe worksheets stay inside the book
Same book either way. The printable pack is the difference, and it is the part a printed book cannot do for you.
Questions
Do I have to give up my phone?
No. The book is explicit that you keep the smartphone and everything useful on it. It changes when and how you enter the device, not whether you own one.
Is this another dopamine detox?
No. There is no cleanse, no thirty-day challenge and no purity test. Every method changes the conditions around the behaviour rather than asking you to want it more.
Does it work for iPhone and Android?
Both. There are separate step-by-step walkthroughs for each, so you are not left hunting through settings menus.
How long does it take to read?
One sitting. It is 139 pages and deliberately short, so you can read it tonight and change your phone before bed.
Anything else, write to [email protected] and Mike will answer.
Also from Mike Salari
Self-Discipline for Real Life
A systems guide to reliable action
Most discipline advice tells you to want it more. This one treats follow-through as a design problem instead. If The Check Loop is about one behaviour, this is about all of them.
Get Self-DisciplineTicket Taker, Outcome Owner
A developer's system for building trust and career momentum
You finished every ticket and your review still said be more proactive. Written from the hiring side of that verdict.
Get Ticket TakerKeep the smartphone. Lose the automatic checking.
Read it tonight. Change your phone before bed.