Swipe by Tracy Maylett and Tim Vandehey is a helpful book for anyone who has ever struggled to finish what they start. The authors explain the psychological process that makes it so hard to stay motivated, and they offer practical strategies to overcome triggers. The book is well-written and informative, and it provides valuable insights into the psychology of motivation in modern times.

Stop swiping, get things done and grow

Electronic devices are wonderful tools as long as we don’t allow them to become addictive and take over our lives. It’s so easy to lose hours swiping and scrolling, precious hours that we won’t get back.

Swipe takes us through how swiping impacts our lives, wastes time and prevents us developing and growing. Rather than accept that difficulties are part of life and that working through them to learn and achieve new aims are things of great worth which we should celebrate we take the easy route and we swipe to avoid discomfort. By doing this we stop ourselves from learning new skills and stunt our personal development.

The book takes us through the underlying psychology and how it affects our brains and lives. Most importantly, it tells us how to take back control of our attention so we can apply and direct it as we want and need to.

Of the ten chapters the first six cover the negative impact swiping has on us and our lives. The next two look at the psychology of swiping and how it affects our brains. The final two chapters look at how to master our attention and change the cycle to a beneficial one. Personally, there is some repetition and I think the book could be edited to give a more balanced structure to leave the reader with a more positive, I can do this feeling by the end. This is a minor quibble and I gained some very useful info from the book and am already being far more conscious about how I’m using my devices and feel that I’m putting my time to better and far more positive use.

I was given this book from the author via netgalley only for the pleasure of reading and leaving an honest review should I choose to.

This is a very needed item to work, study and o with no procrastination.

Very recommended and also, it's an easy reading, with several examples and explanations about the mind and how to's too.

A very solidly founded book that I feel is joining a trend we are all worried about. You start to see it addressed more often in self-help, but not in the labeling and tackling format that is more traditionally a staple of the genre. This book seems to bring new ideology to older formulas, but thankfully in a way that suited the subject well.

If you’re like me and feel very guilty about always starting and then ending up abandoning projects, this book by Tracy Maylett and Tim Vandehey is for you!

Swiping is the mental act of reflexively dismissing an uncomfortable or disturbing present in the hope that something better and easier is just around the corner.

“Swipe”, by Tracy Maylett and Tim Vandehey
The authors do a great job explaining what Swipe is, what are its long-term effects, how to avoid it and why and, finally, how to actually finish things.

In this article, you’ll find the most interesting and useful ideas I gathered from the book. If you find them useful as well, know that the book will explain them all in detail and accompany them with the proper studies conducted to prove them.

Why You Should Avoid Swiping?
In today’s world, all the choices we have make Swipe inevitable. With trivial things, it seems it has no further impact than the feel-good of “new and shiny”.

The problem, of course, is that it’s ruining our capacity to withstand difficulties and achieve greatness in the long run.

It makes us apathetic and defeatist.

Even more, Swipe occurs at work too. People have become disengaged with their current activities and no amount of bonuses and motivational benefits seem to do the trick in making them care or become really involved in their work.

How many projects have you started and abandoned because of boredom or simply because they became too difficult?

Now, you even feel fear of something new – failure has become the new normal. Progress and growth are nonexistent. You have already arrived at the (obviously wrong) conclusion that nothing ever changes: you are not a real [… writer, musician, business owner etc.].

When we Swipe continually, we have no hope of achieving mastery. We never really get good at anything, no matter how badly we want to.

“Swipe”, by Tracy Maylett and Tim Vandehey
We agree, then, Swiping is a problem.

Why Does Swipe Happen?
Swiping is preceded, typically, by self-delusion about the difficulty of the task at hand.

When you start something, you are full of energy and motivation. As soon as you get to actually work on that task, motivation lowers until there is none left. If you are not aware of this process, at this point, you’ll give up and swipe – get to another, new project.

Understanding the actual cause that makes you swipe is what helps stop it in the future. Because of that, the authors of “Swipe” have classified the phenomenon according to its cause:

The Intimidation Swipe – occurs when you give up at the first sign of difficulty in a new project. It is the most common one and it’s usually due to ignorance surrounding the actual work involved in reaching the goal.
The Disillusionment Swipe – occurs when you give up because the new project isn’t fun any more.
The Ennui Swipe – occurs when you give up because the new project has become boring.
The Greener Grass Swipe – when you give up because you are constantly looking for new, seemingly better projects, and you think you have found one. Of course, as soon as you start it, you also start looking again.
The Inspector Javert Swipe – when you fear finishing the task or achieving your goal. You are in one of two situations: your work has started to define who you are and if you finish you think you’ll lose yourself or you fear people’s judgement – if you finish a book, others can read it and find it’s actually bad, so you never finish writing it.
The Impostor Syndrome Swipe – when the pursuit of a goal makes you feel like a fraud – incapable, incompetent, even just unworthy.
The Ego Swipe – When you feel you deserve better, when you feel something isn’t worth the effort or the kind of work is “beneath” you.
The Trapped Animal Swipe – this is a panic Swipe, occurring in situations when a long-term commitment is involved.
Identifying your true feelings regarding a project and why exactly you feel you need to move on will actually help you understand the real problem you have.

Does this mean quitting anything is bad for you? Not at all! Quitting after you have thoroughly analysed your situation and found it is the best course of action is great! Quitting after careful consideration isn’t Swiping!

Swiping is an automatic reaction to escaping discomfort. The difference lies in an emotional impulse as opposed to a logical course of action.

The expectation when you Swipe, when you seek an escape, is that what will follow next is a reset(our failure never happened, we didn’t really want that thing), a return to the familiar and comfortable or just an easy way out.

How to Actually Finish What You Start: Practical Strategies
But what makes some competitors more able to gut through the agony of a marathon or a 112-mile bike leg? What keeps them from disengaging and pursuing something less taxing? To put it another way, what keeps them from Swiping? We asked Todd, who had competed in yet another Ironman the day before our conversation.

“Yesterday I had a great race,” he said. “I swam well, I biked well, and then I got to the run, and suddenly I was sick and nauseous. So I’m out there, I’m walking a lot, and it’s hot. I was thinking, Why am I finishing this? And there are two sides to the answer: First, it’s wanting to succeed. I want to succeed and add another notch to my belt. I am grateful for the people who have helped me do what I do, and I owe it to them not to quit.

“Then there’s another piece of it, which is that I don’t want to fail. I’m starting to see that not only in myself but it’s a common characteristic in people with addiction. We take that negative passion to self-destruct and turn it into self-improvement, and that means there’s this constant fire: ‘I won’t be beaten this time. I’m not going to fail.’ Used properly, it’s a great asset.

“Swipe”, by Tracy Maylett and Tim Vandehey
These are a few of the actual strategies described in the book that will help you finish what you want:

Swipe-switch
When you have a big, difficult task coming up, your tendency to swipe will be big. You will try to avoid it or delay it as much as possible. You need to acknowledge that and try to prevent yourself from swiping.

First, create a list of 3 or 4 productive things you also need/want to do at some point. Then, start your difficult task and work on it for exactly 30 minutes – you can definitely manage that. When you reach the 30 minutes stop and move to a task on your list. Do it for only 15 minutes, then go back to your big task. Repeat this for as long as it takes.

This strategy will ensure you have enough diversity and distraction so that you finish the task at hand.

Recognise, Reflect, Repeat
To stop giving into your impulse to quit, you must first recognise the pattern you are in and then really analyse what you are about to do. You need to do this every time you are tempted to Swipe.

For you to be successful at it, strive to extend the space between your stimulus – the impulse to change activities, and your response – the actual swipe.

Answering questions like the ones below will help you in this process:

“Is Swiping my knee-jerk reaction to this situation, and am I about to Swipe?”
“How did I get here? What were the precursors?”
“Am I falling victim to past patterns? Is it time to interrupt or change them?”
“In persisting and not Swiping, will I be doing more to honor the values—that which I hold to be of greater worth—that are important to me than I will by Swiping?”
“How have my past failures to finish impacted my sense of self-worth, and how might making it to the finish line this time improve my self-worth?”
“What am I Swiping to?”
“Who am I if I continue to Swipe, versus who I could become if I can see this through to the end? Could finishing be a new beginning?”
“Swipe”, by Tracy Maylett and Tim Vandehey
Desensitisation Training
If you expect your task to be difficult, plan ahead. Think beforehand what is your course of action when you’ll get the itch to quit.

Strive to finish small tasks to convince yourself you can tackle bigger and bigger ones.

Finally, observe your desire to swipe and just move past it once. Then, repeat until you become immune to it.

Conclusion
“Swipe” can help you reflect on a real problem in today’s world. It presents lots of studies and will convince you that action must be taken against this disengagement impulse. Even more, it can help you actually finish things!

I hope this article made it clear to you if it’s a book you’ll enjoy or not. If you think it is indeed something you were looking for, the book can be found here

As a professor who leads several courses involving social media...and deals with students who are impacted by social media...SWIPE provides insightful and thoughtful reasoning and research into how social media impacts our lives and mental state. As we see with the current controversy about TikTok, social media's impact is all around us. I will recommend this title to my classes. @AmplifyPubGroup

Swipe does an in-depth analysis on why we don't finish what we start. Sprinkled with interesting stories and psychological analysis, this book is useful for anyone wondering how to start, and finish, their next project. At first, I understood what 'Swipe' was, but as the chapters continued on, it became more ambiguous. Let me explain. 'Swipe' is coined in place of 'Pass', for example, he passed on this opportunity, she passed on this personal project once it got too hard, they passed on renting out a space for their wine bar because of the exorbitant costs. You get it now, right? So, anyway, 'Swipe' was clear at first, but then it started taking the place of other words as the chapters went on, therefore contributing to its ambiguity. That said, 'Swipe' is a well-researched book and phenomena overall in this high tech, low attention span world, where instantaneous results are preferred over the hard work finish line because no one likes being in the process when they prefer to be in the results. Definitely a good read for anyone on the verge of burnout, or in my case, on the verge of tears for not knowing what is the next step in a self imposed personal project. Despite the ambiguity of the coined term, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in finishing what they started.

As someone who enthusiastically begins projects only to let them slide, I was interested to read Swipe, and I think anyone who finds the premise interesting will be glad to read this book. I am grateful for the opportunity to have had the chance.

Stop trying to make Swipe happen. (It's never gonna happen.)

To those who get the reference: kudos. To everyone else: let me explain.

Swipe is a very concise read compiling data and examples from people, companies, organizations, that have suffered at the hands of their own discouragement. 'Swipe' is coined in place of the word 'Pass'. He passed on this, she passed on that. I understand that coining a unique term or phrase it is a model employed by many of the most successful leadership books and brands, but it feels like there could be a better term for the phenomenon Maylett and Vandehey are trying to encapsulate.

That said, the 'Swipe' phenomenon is very well researched. In a digital era, how often do we find ourselves quitting prematurely or procrastinating on the things we know will benefit us in the long run? In terms of advice, Swipe does an excellent job of defining, supporting, and offering tools for breaking our own habits of self-destruction.

Definitely a great read to keep handy and recommend to anyone you know on the verge of burnout. Also an excellent reference for other great works that are cited throughout. I was personally impressed by the number of other authors and researchers mentioned whose work I was already familiar with.

Ready to break professional self-sabotage? Give swipe a try.

[Thank you to NetGalley and Amplify Publishing for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.]

What attracted me most to the book was the title and after reading a few pages, I could easily relate to what was being pointed out and motivated me to embark on my own journey to reconsider my "Swipe" habits in order to live a fulfilling life and in the present but above all to learn how to push through the discomfort of swiping as a avoidance mechanism.

I liked the underlying premise of the book, especially it coming at a time when there is a lot of talk on similar areas like quiet quitting, disengagement etc. I have some mixed feelings about the book - at places it seemed to enlighten me at places it confused me about the meaning of swipe. Possibly I need to re-read the book once to be sure, But I think it would have been helpful to have a simple way to understand this concept.

When I read the blurb for this book I thought that it sounded so much like me that I had to read it! I often don’t finish things because I am tempted by a new idea so I thought there could be some useful lessons here for me.

The book is very insightful and leads the reader through all the reasons we might swipe from one thing to another, and also looks at the different types of swiper and reasons behind why we swipe. There is also some psychology and a deeper look at what happens in the brain when we swipe, and what makes swiping a more attractive option than finishing something.

Like most books of this type, most of the content is taken up with the what and why, with the ‘how to fix it’ saved for the last chapter. However, dotted throughout the book are side boxes with information about how to stop swiping so you never feel like all the juicy stuff is kept until the end.

Reading this book will not automatically stop you from swiping - unfortunately, you have to do the work for that! But reading this book will help you understand why you behave as you do and steps you can take to recognise and then change that behaviour.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who suffers with not being able to finish what they start, who keeps being distracted or who suffer with ‘shiny object syndrome’. All these are learned habits that absolutely can be unlearned, with a fair bit of work and guidance from this book.

With thanks to Netgalley and Amplify Publishing for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.