Introducing friction can help curtail unwanted habits like frequent smartphone checking.

“if it's in a different room, I have a home office and so it's just down the hall. It's only like 30 seconds away, but I never go get it. >> And I'm like, well, did I want it or not? You know, in the one sense, I wanted it so bad that I would check it every 3 minutes when it was next to me, but in the other sense, I never wanted it badly enough that I would work for 30 seconds to go get it. A lot of your habits are like that. If you introduce a little bit of friction, they will kind of curtail themselves to the desired degree.”