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The HDI model

Three words to step back from the screen. Seven models to remember them by.

3D

3D is the umbrella over every model, and it runs through each one.

  • Divertturn toward something that does you more good
  • Discomfortthe first days feel awkward; get through them
  • Delightrepeat it until it becomes something you enjoy

3D is also a way back to three dimensions: up and down, forward and back, left and right. Smells, sounds, colours and the freedom of open space. The screen is flat; the world your body and senses know best is not.

An adult reads a paper book in bed by a small lamp; a distant phone rests on a hallway charger with its screen dark.

For exampleAt 22:30 your thumb reaches for the feed. Divert: put the phone on the hallway charger and open the book on your nightstand. Discomfort: the first evenings feel restless, and that is expected. Delight: by the second week, those ten pages are the part of the evening you look forward to.

Each model below is three words: two ways, and where they lead. Remember the letter, and the words come back. Each one is grounded in published research on coping and motivation.

From the research

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Energizers

Energizers give you the energy to get through the Discomfort.

3M

Meaning · Momentum Mastery

  • Meaningknow why it matters to you
  • Momentumkeep going, and start again kindly after a slip
  • Masterysetbacks stop deciding for you

Meaning: a change holds better when you know what it is for. Momentum: expect that it can work, and when you slip, forgive yourself and recommit the same day instead of giving up. Mastery is where it leads: setbacks stop deciding for you.

For exampleWrite one sentence on a note on the fridge: “Evenings off the phone, so I am really with the people at home.” When Wednesday slips, read it and start again the same evening.

Tell a friendTry 3M: write down why it matters to you.

An adult attaches a blank note to a kitchen fridge with a magnet, beside drawings and an unlabelled calendar grid.
From the research

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3E

Environment · Energize Empower

  • Environmentarrange your space so the good choice is the easy one
  • Energizeact first; the feeling follows
  • Empowerthe change becomes yours

Environment: change the place, not only your willpower, such as the charger outside the bedroom or the app off the home screen. Energize: take the small planned step before you feel like it; doing comes first, and the mood follows. Empower is where it leads: repeated in the same place, the change becomes a habit and part of who you are.

For exampleMove the charger from the nightstand to the hallway shelf and put a book where the phone used to lie. Then read one page before you feel like it.

Tell a friendTry 3E: move the charger out of the bedroom.

A paper book and a glass of water sit on a bedside table in morning light, with an unused charging cable hanging over the edge.
From the research

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Copers

Copers are what you can Divert to instead of the screen.

3O

Others · Outdoors Outstanding

  • Otherspeople, face to face
  • Outdoorstime outside, in nature
  • Outstandingfeeling fully alive

Others: real company, in person, pulls attention out of the screen and out of your own head. Outdoors: time outside, among trees, by water, under open sky. Outstanding is where it leads: the feeling of being fully alive.

For exampleAfter dinner, instead of scrolling, call a neighbour and walk around the block together for twenty minutes, phones in your pockets.

Tell a friendTry 3O: go outside with someone.

Two adults of different ages walk and laugh together on a tree-lined residential street at dusk, their hands in jacket pockets.
From the research

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3A

Awe · Alertness Achievement

  • Awesomething bigger than you
  • Alertnessattention out, here and now
  • Achievementdoing something that means something to you

Awe: a view, music, a night sky, anything vast enough to make your worries smaller. Alertness: attention turned outward, to what is happening here and now, instead of circling inside your head. Achievement is where it leads: accomplishing something that matters to you, not something done only to look good.

For exampleOn the walk home, keep the phone in your pocket and watch the sky change over the river. At home, give the freed half hour to something that matters to you: the guitar, the letter, the shelf.

Tell a friendTry 3A: look up and notice something big.

An adult pauses beside a river and looks up at clouds warmed by the setting sun, with a distant city across the water.
From the research

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3B

Basics · Body Balance

  • Basicssleep, meals and rest without a screen
  • Bodymove in your free time
  • Balancea body that can switch off and recover

Basics: protect sleep, meals and rest from the screen. Body: move in your free time, whether you walk, play or dance. Balance is where it leads: a body that can switch off and recover.

For exampleDinner at the table with every screen in another room, then a short walk or a song to dance to in the kitchen. Overnight, the phone charges outside the bedroom.

Tell a friendTry 3B: no screen at the table or in bed.

Three adults share a simple meal in a kitchen; one rises laughing as if about to dance, with no screens present.
From the research

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3S

Separation · Solitude Success

  • Separationdistance from the phone
  • Solitudetime alone, without distraction
  • Successyou steer your day again

Separation: put distance between you and the phone, such as another room, notifications off, mail checked in batches. Solitude: learn to be alone with your thoughts, and to sit with the urge without reaching for the screen. Success is where it leads: your day is steered by you again, not by the next notification.

For exampleFor the first hour of Saturday, leave the phone in another room and drink your coffee by the window, alone with your own thoughts.

Tell a friendTry 3S: leave the phone in another room for an hour.

An adult sits quietly by a window with a cup of coffee, looking outside in morning light.
From the research

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3F

Filter · Focus Flow

  • Filterlet in only what matters
  • Focusone task at a time
  • Flowdeep absorption in something worth doing

Filter: decide what may reach you, and when. Focus: one demanding task at a time, to a natural stopping point; switching costs more than it feels. Flow is where it leads: being fully absorbed in a task worth doing. The same absorption in endless scrolling or games is not Flow.

For exampleTurn notifications off, put one task on the desk, set fifty minutes and stay with it to a natural stopping point.

Tell a friendTry 3F: one task, notifications off, until it is done.

An adult concentrates on shaping or sanding a small wooden piece at a simple desk without screens.
From the research

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1C

The Closure Model

1C is the ground under every model. The 1 marks a different kind of thing: not one more model, but the floor beneath them all.

Social media and news feeds have no last page, and the inbox keeps refilling: there is always one more post, one more message, one more headline. Unfinished things keep a claim on your attention, so we live unfinished days. The feed keeps us waiting; the feeling of “done”, that small calm when something is finished, is easy to miss. So an open thing costs twice: no small reward of finishing, and a tension that stays until it is closed. Change needs room in the day, and open loops eat that room. Fewer things open at once helps: judges who juggled fewer cases at a time finished the same workload sooner. 3D explains why a person will not change; 1C explains why they often cannot.

For exampleTuesday, 21:40. The day is over, but seven things are still open in your head: an email from your boss, a message you have not answered, a bill, a half-written report. You decided to read tonight instead of scrolling, yet every open thing pulls, and the phone quiets that pull quickly, for a minute. It is not weak will; there is no room. 1C: before the evening, take five minutes and a sheet of paper. Write down every open thing, and next to it one next step and when you will take it. You solve nothing tonight; you close it for today. Then the book.

The individual HDI test describes this in your results: how your open loops close under load. A description, never a grade.

1C is a model, not a finding: it explains, and its predictions are still being tested.

From the research

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Photographs: AI-generated illustrations, fictional people.

The 3D model, energizers and copers © Tomislav Krištof, HDI.Vision. Free to use and share under CC BY 4.0, with attribution.