Why you're hooked. October Edit.

My recommendation for you this month: a 12 minute guest podcast by Jocelyn Glei , “Unsubscribing as an Act of Creation,” that appeared on The Good Life Project.

Why I think you’ll like it. 

Glei celebrates the positives of distraction for idea conception and creativity, while explaining how it interferes with execution and focus.  It’s the how that’s so fascinating, with a new lens on old distractions.

Hey email—I’m looking at you. And yes, I get the irony of addressing this topic in your inbox. Stay with me here.

Glei draws on the research of BF Skinner to distinguish between “regular” and “variable” (i.e. random awarded) rewards, and how the latter hooks us into behavior that doesn’t always serve us.

Spoiler alert: In his lab, Skinner could train rats to push a lever for a regular reward—in this case a consistently-sized food pellet--that would arrive on a predictable schedule. Then things got really interesting. When Skinner made the reward variable (sometimes a small pellet, sometimes large, sometimes none) he could get the rats to push the lever compulsively—almost until exhaustion.

Glei likens your email inbox to the variable reward lab set up. And yes, that means you’re the rat. Sometimes your inbox holds small rewards, most often no rewards (or negative rewards), and once in a while a super-desirable reward.

If you checked your email right before bed last night, or right upon waking this morning, it’s in good part the variability (the chance that “magic” might be waiting for you in your inbox) that compelled you to do so, even when you knew there was likely more to disappoint, then reward you.

Distinguishing regular and variable rewards is freeing—because when we understand we can choose.

I want you be mindful about the voices you allow into the sacred space of your inbox and inspired to unsubscribe to some of what regularly arrives.

In my inbox each week, there are a handful of voices I genuinely welcome, and I aspire to be one of those voices for you. I want what I deliver to be so good, helpful, useful or incisive that you’d miss it if it didn’t arrive.

They say you are the average of the five people with whom you spend the most time. Inboxes count.

I recently pared back the number of the email lists to which I subscribe. Here’s the bar I hold myself to that may be helpful for you: consider each person (that you’ve given permission to email you) a guest at your party. Bottom line, you should look forward to their presence, and the stories they bring you.

The stories you receive (in your inbox, in your world) really do influence the stories you tell yourself and others. So it’s worth choosing wisely.