Our phones are a new kind of fire. Unskilled use is killing us. Skilled use, like fire, can be used to change the world.

If you follow the steps in this guide, you’ll reset the playing field between your mind and the Shimmer. The changes you’ll make in the next 15 minutes will help you increase your focus, improve your emotional resiliency, you’ll become (way) more productive, and you’ll sleep better, which improves everything.

Redesigning your unconscious habits with the shimmer is a deep, rewarding rabbit hole, but in the spirit of the 80/20 principle, we are going to focus on the seven most impactful changes you can make to your phone to help you navigate the shimmer intentionally.

#1: Turn off Notifications

Open the Apple Setting App (we’ll be clicking this button a lot, so put it somewhere easy to find).

Go through each app and turn off all notifications (really, all of them).

Okay, there are a few exception:

• keep your navigation apps on
• your calendar notifications (but turn off the badge option)
• and messages and phone app are your choice (I don’t let them notify me).

By the time you’re done, most of your apps should show ‘Off’ underneath the name of the app.

To turn off, click one of the apps. Peep the 🎯 in the top right corner. Press the ‘Allow Notification’ button to turn it from green to grey.

Note: turning off all notifications is best, but if you feel resistance, at least turn off badges.

Turning off notifications allows this to be possible.

#2: Quarantine Your Social Media Apps

These programs are the most dangerous for untrained Shimmer users.

Recognize what they are.

Each social media app is a game created by one of the richest and most powerful corporations in history (Meta, X, TickTock, etc), and each game is governed by an AI-powered algorithm that is programmed to use it’s trillions of bits of data to keep your attention fused to the app as long as they can so they can sell advertisements to you.

This is not a conspiracy theory. This is an economic fact.

If the platform is free, you are the product.

So recognize that the game of our generation is for humanity to learn how to navigate the Shimmer while we share the Shimmer with the Crawlers.

(The Crawlers are the ‘time on site’ optimizing AI programs — Meta, X, Ticktock, etc)

Create a folder on your second home screen and put all socials in there.

You can create a folder by pressing down on any app for 3 seconds, then dragging it on top of another app. (Below I dragged the ATG app over the Onnit Gym app).

Title the folder something that reflects what these apps are. I’ve named mine ‘The Crawlers’

Move all of your social medias into that folder.

If you want to take this deeper, Tristian Harris recommends putting all social media apps on the second screen of that folder. (Below is his screenshot).

Here is what mine looks like:

In order to do this, you have to have at least one app on the first screen.

Extra credit: Just delete all your socials from your phone. Use them only from your desktop.

#3: The Same, But Now Messaging

Do the same thing, but for the platforms you use to message.

This would be:

• email
• text messages
• your phone app
• face time, etc.

Pro-tip: Time-block when you use these apps. Don’t let any of them notify you.

Time-blocking means you choose in advance what span of time you’re going to spend using these apps. When that time arrives, you use only these apps, and you do what you intend to do.

Time-blocking allows for what’s called ‘batching,’ and batching means doing a single type of activity for a block of time. This allows for flow states to happen, and it immunizes you from all the harmful effects of chronic multi-tasking (if you actually stop multi-tasking lol).

For the best effect, time-block checking social media and your messages for later in the day.

If you develop the capacity to do deep, creative work for the first few hours of your work day, you’ll find yourself more productive than you’ve ever been. For more on this, check out Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work.

Extra credit: just like the previous section, consider just deleting all of these off of your phone and time-block using them from your desktop.

#4: Learn To Live in DND (Do Not Disturb)

This could arguably be the number 1 most important daily change to learn how to do in relationship with the Shimmer.

You’re allowed to leave your phone on Do Not Disturb.

Quick story: In 2018 I got my dream job. The CEO was a kind of celebrity, and everyone who worked closely with him assumed that if he texted, called, or emailed them they had to respond asap.

I had already began to implement most of these practices by the time I started working there, and during my first week, I was out on a date when the CEO sent me a message asking me to call him.

I didn’t ignore it (if I had seen it I would have let my date know I needed to make a call, and then called him).

But I didn’t see it.

I didn’t see the message until I checked my phone when I got home about three hours later. I sent him a text saying something to the effect of ‘Sorry I missed your call, I was on a date and I leave my phone on do not disturb almost all of the time. If you still need me, I’m available.’

He texted me back in a couple of minutes and said “no worries I figured it out. And thats a good idea. I should do that.”

The next day I shared this story with the CEO’s executive assistant, an incredibly hard working brother, but someone with with absolutely no shimmer boundaries. He looked at me with a kind of dumbfoundedness that had a hint of what I thought was despair.

You’re allowed to live on Do Not Disturb. Your friends and coworkers will not only learn to adapt to your changed Shimmer behavior, but you might inspire them to improve their relationship with the Shimmer.

Feel free to send this to them if you think it’ll help.

Okay, let’s set this up.

Go to Settings → Focus. Then click the top right + button.

The one I use all the time, literally almost all of the time, is called ‘Dharma Focus.’

As you can see, it’s intense. There are no exceptions on who can get through to me.

I am happy to report that I’ve done this for years and it has not created a single emergency. It has not ruined a single relationship, and it has allowed me the space to think deeply and create things I love.

Be sure to go turn on ‘Share Across Devices.’ This will disable notifications popping up on your desktop.

Feel free to play around with who you would like to get through the digital wall.

#5: Consider Your Wallpaper

Here is what mine looks like:

Whenever I open my phone to actually use it (not just check the time or to send a quick text),

I ask myself two questions:

1. How long do I intend to be in the shimmer?
2. What do I intend to do during that time in the shimmer?

If you catch yourself not having an answer for both of these questions before you open your phone, close your eyes and take a deep breath. This is a special moment. This is the beginning of you really starting to notice the Shimmer. This feeling is the feeling of metacognitive awareness activating. Something is changing in you.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been awaken from an unconscious scroll hole because I had set a timer at the outset of my shimmer exploration.

It is humbling beyond description to be studying and writing and creating the content I do, and still I find myself wandering unconsciously through the shimmer almost daily.

Our collective attentional injury is truly profound.

Bonus: Black wallpaper can massively improve your battery’s charge life.

To change your wallpaper (and feel free to take mine), go to:

Photos → click the photo you want → then click the box with upward arrow

Now scroll down to ‘Use as Wallpaper.”

But feel free to use any kind of image for your wallpaper.

The key is to be intentional.

What do you want to prime into your unconscious when you pick up your phone?

• Maybe it’s a picture of someone you love, or your family, because you’d like to remember why you work as much as you do.
• Maybe it’s an animal you love because you want to prime feeling calm and safe.
• Maybe it’s some wild powerful animal because you want to prime feelings of courage or power.
• Maybe it’s a quote you love or a piece of art you’ve enjoyed for years.

Whatever it is, remember the average person checks their phone between 100 and 200 times a day.

You will see this image a lot.

Be intentional.

#6: Turn Off ‘Raise to Wake’

This is a feature of the iphone that shows you notifications when it senses you’ve raised your phone.

We do not want this. Studies show that even seeing a notification can distract our ability to focus and perform creative tasks as much as actually checking the notification.

Just like social medias and your communication apps, choose when you check your notifications.

Go to Settings, then scroll down until you see ‘Display & Brightness.’ Click that, then, on the next menu, scroll down to ‘Raise to Wake.’

Press it to turn it from green to grey.

While you’re there, you might as well put it on dark mode. It’s the way.

#7: Use The Shimmer to Track The Shimmer

The final step is to use the shimmer to track itself.

First, press down anywhere on your homescreen for three full seconds.

Make sure you’re doing this on your home screen.

That makes the apps start shaking.

Then click the plus button at the top left.

This will bring up the widget menu.

(lol thats me from 2018).

Type in ‘screen’ to bring up ‘Screen Tracking.’

Three options will pop up. Small, medium,

or ‘holy shit.’

At first I tried ‘holy shit’ mode and it was too big.

I settled on medium.

The last picture is what my current home screen looks like.

Congratulations, You’re a Shimmer One Percent-er

Okay I actually don’t know that to be true, but if we do a quick recap of the numbers…

1. The average 18 to 34 year old checks their phone between 100-200 times a day.
2. That means the average person’s attentional system is significantly injured (see 4 Faces of Mara).

1% of the current world population (writing from 2024) is 70 million.

What percentage of the world population do you think is affected by the Shimmer?

Let’s say an outrageously conservative number, and pick 50% of the world population (I wouldn’t be surprised if it was closer to 90%).

But let’s say it’s 50%. That would give us 35 million people.

I don’t know if my intuition is wildly off, but I imagine it’s less than 5 million.

Anyways, take a moment to appreciate that, now that you’ve done this to your phone, you have the space to start building a new relationship with the Shimmer.

We need as many lucid shimmer users as possible.

Thank you for having the courage to say yes to a process that will help wake you up.