Where are Your Scarecrows?

In the 13th Century, a Buddhist priest named Bukkoku wrote the following poem:

Farmers used to place these scarecrows out in the field so that they didn’t have to stand out there themselves and wave all the pests away from their crops.

Scarecrows freed up the farmer’s time so that he could place his efforts elsewhere, in turn becoming more productive and less reactionary.

Where are your scarecrows?

What systems do you have in place to detect or repel the “pests” of life?

Have you blocked your crazy ex’s phone number?

Have you put up a “NO SOLICITING” sign on your front door to keep the salespeople away?

Do you have to manually save, or have you set up automatic transfers to your savings account every time you get paid

If you don’t have these measures in place, you invite unneeded stress and disruption into your life.

You are the farmer with no scarecrows that has to run out every half hour to run them off, taking you away from more important work.

Recently, I felt myself growing more distracted by social media and other mindless distractions on my phone.

And then I had a revelation:

7.6 DAYS.

182 HOURS.

Enough time to take a full vacation, get proficient in a brand new skill, or read quite a few books.

I had no scarecrows and whenever my boredom in idle pockets of time crept in, I would fill these gaps with mindless scrolling.

So I deleted the Instagram and X/Twitter apps from my phone.

I put my phone on DND for most of the day or use the brilliant Brick app blocking device.

I put up my scarecrows.

And whenever I found myself with extra time — whether I was waiting for a friend that was late or arrived to my destination 20 minutes early, I reached for distractions that were no longer there.

The scarecrows did their job, and I could now use that time productively by getting some extra reading done or replying to important emails or texts.

To be clear, I’m all for a mindless distraction or some time every day where I want to just shut my brain off.

But it has to be intentional.

After all, redownloading Instagram takes 30 seconds at most, so it really isn’t that big an obstacle to overcome if I really want to check it.

But even that added friction is an effective barrier throughout the day when I want to be in a more focused state of mind.

Willpower is overrated.

An alcoholic doesn’t toy with their addiction by walking into a bar and staring at a bottle of Jack.

They stay out of the bar in the first place, so that drinking isn’t much of a thought at all.

They build a life around other things that bring them joy, like fitness or education.

They put up scarecrows in the parts of their lives they want to protect.

And like the Buddhist priest said 8 centuries ago: even if the scarecrow has no mind of it’s own, and even if you can’t always see it, you know it’s working 24/7.

So it’s worth asking again:

Where are your scarecrows?