Friction-Maxxing Works. But Only If You Know What You're Protecting.

What's friction-maxxing? Fair question. It describes the practice of intentionally adding inconvenience back into your life. Paying with cash instead of tapping your phone. Reading a physical book instead of watching YouTube. Calling a friend for advice instead of asking ChatGPT.

The BBC recently explored why this trend is gaining momentum, profiling an artist who couldn't paint for more than 30 minutes without reaching for their phone—until they started deliberately adding friction to digital habits.

The movement makes sense. We've spent 15 years letting technology eliminate every pause, every barrier, every moment where we might have to stop and think. And the result isn't efficiency. It's exhaustion.

But here's what most friction-maxxing advice misses: barriers alone don't solve the problem.

Why Friction Actually Works

From an attention-as-energy perspective, friction does something crucial. It creates a checkpoint.

When everything is frictionless—one-tap purchases, infinite scroll, auto-play videos—your attention never gets to choose. It just reacts. Every removed barrier is another place where your energy flows automatically instead of deliberately.

Friction puts choice back into the system.

Think of it this way: frictionless design removes the pause between impulse and action. The moment you think "I wonder what's happening on Instagram" becomes the moment you're already scrolling. There's no gap. No decision point. No place where your attention could redirect itself.

Friction restores that gap.

When you have to unlock your phone, open the app, wait for it to load—those extra seconds aren't wasted time. They're the space where you can ask: "Is this actually where I want my energy to go?"

The Problem Friction Alone Can't Fix

But here's where the trend risks becoming just another productivity hack: friction protects attention, but it doesn't direct it.

You could delete Instagram, add a screen time lock to your email, and switch to a flip phone. And if all you've done is create barriers without deciding what you're protecting, you'll just shift the fragmentation somewhere else.

Maybe you stop doomscrolling but start obsessively reorganizing your closet. Maybe you quit social media but lose three hours a night to streaming. Maybe you block distracting websites but then spend that time in endless work chat conversations.

The attention isn't less fragmented. It's just fragmented differently.

What Friction Actually Protects

Friction works when it protects something specific.

Not just "less phone time." But: more time to paint without interruption. Or: space to think without AI filling in the gaps. Or: the ability to sit with a problem long enough that your own solution emerges.

Friction needs a purpose. Otherwise, you're just making your life harder without making it more coherent.

This is where attention-as-energy thinking becomes essential. Friction reduces automatic behavior (good), but coherence requires direction (also necessary).

You need both:

• Friction to prevent scatter
• Intention about where the reclaimed energy actually goes

The Missing Piece: What Do You Want to Become Possible?

The most powerful question isn't "What friction should I add?" It's "What am I trying to protect?"

Are you trying to protect:

• Deep focus on creative work?
• Presence with your family?
• The ability to be bored long enough that creativity shows up?
• Space to process your own thoughts before AI offers a summary?

Once you know what you're protecting, friction becomes strategic instead of arbitrary.

You don't add friction everywhere. You add it at the specific points where automatic behavior is stealing energy from what matters.

How to Friction-Max with Intention

Here's what that looks like in practice:

Step 1: Identify one thing that matters Not ten things. One. What's the single activity, relationship, or capacity you want to protect this week?

Step 2: Notice where frictionless design is stealing from it Where does your attention leak away automatically? What app, notification, or habit pulls you away without your conscious choice?

Step 3: Add friction at that specific point Not everywhere. Just there. Create a pause where there wasn't one.

Step 4: Decide where the energy goes instead Don't just block the distraction. Actively choose what gets that attention. Otherwise, it'll just scatter in a new direction.

The Real Power of Friction

Friction-maxxing isn't about suffering. It's not about rejecting technology or romanticizing inconvenience.

It's about recognizing that every removed barrier is a removed decision point. And when you never get to decide, your attention never gets to organize itself around what actually matters to you.

The pause isn't the problem. The pause is where coherence happens.

So yes, add friction. Make things slightly harder. Restore the checkpoints that frictionless design removed.

But do it with purpose.

Because attention isn't just something you defend. It's something you direct.

And friction only works if you know what you're directing it toward.

Stay curious!

The BBC article "Can 'Friction-Maxxing' Fix Your Focus?" explores how people are rebuilding tolerance for inconvenience to restore focus and deepen their sense of self. Read the full piece here.

If you're looking for a weekly practice that helps you both protect and direct your attention, the Weekly Attention Reset Protocol is designed for exactly this. It's free, takes 15 minutes, and helps you start each week with clarity about what actually deserves your energy.