The key to a healthy relationship with technology is to identify what brings well-being and happiness, then set boundaries through actions such as turning off notifications or changing the phone's display. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it has to work for us.
The speaker suggests practicing mental acuity by putting away phones, being aware of our surroundings, and choosing what to focus on, citing subway rides in New York as an example.
The key is to make good decisions easy and bad decisions difficult. This may require sacrificing some aspect of the user experience, but it ultimately leads to more positive outcomes.
Setting alarms on your phone to remind yourself of tasks to complete, such as taking vitamins or going for a run, can increase your chances of success by two-fold, according to research. Additionally, setting alarms for quit smoking messages led to twice as many people quitting smoking over a six month period.
George Saunders talks about the art of writing and the pleasure he gets from refining and perfecting each word. He also shares examples from his little notebook of random things that he finds stupid but funny.