Protocols Book Report: Less Scroll, More Soul

I follow a lot of people, and they all have the same thing in common: high energy. Steven Bartlett (also easy on the eye, I'm only human). Alex Hormozi, who is pure energy in human form. Richard Branson and his "screw it, let's do it" mentality, an ethos I genuinely live by. And Andrew Huberman, who ties it all together with nerdy neuroscience. For this neuro-nerd, that's the best bit.

I've just finished Huberman's book, Protocols. So consider this a book report. No marks out of ten, but plenty of opinions.

Mythbusters for your brain

If you haven't come across him, Andrew Huberman is a neuroscientist with a passion for true wellness. The easiest way I can describe him is Mythbusters for your brain and body. He takes the fads, the hacks, the supplements and the things we all swear by, and checks them against the neuroscience. Some hold up. Plenty don't.

He also looks at the things humans struggle with (sleep, stress, focus, mood) and how we might reduce them using actual science-based theory and evidence, not vibes.

A quick disclaimer before we go any further: I'm not in the medical field, and I'm not claiming anything profound here. This is my perception and interpretation of a really good read. If something here is relevant to your health, chat to someone qualified.

The big idea: we're out of step with ourselves

Protocols felt like a book written entirely for me. Then I realised it was written for everyone like me. Then I realised that's literally everyone.

The core idea is this. Modern life, from technology to food to how we spend our downtime, is changing much faster than our biology can evolve to keep up. Our bodies are still running on ancient settings, while our lives run on the latest update. There's been a bit of an untethering between the two, and a lot of the things we struggle with come from that mismatch.

The answer isn't to throw your phone in the ocean and move into a cave. It's to gently re-tether: to build habits that anchor us back to what our bodies and brains actually need.

Why this hit home for me

You probably know why I built The Hookery. But reading this book gave me a much deeper understanding of why I built it, and why it matters so much.

I built The Hookery to give people a way to re-tether. Something for the hands, the mind and the soul that pulls us back from the screen and into our own lives.

"Less scroll, more soul" started as a cute slogan that matched my vibrant personality. It turns out it had a neuroscientist quietly backing it the whole time. Who knew. (Not me.)

So here's how I'm putting a few of the protocols to work, with a "less scroll, more..." for each.

Less scroll, more sun

Protocol one is sleep, and good sleep starts with light. Light is life. It's how our bodies have told the time for as long as there have been bodies.

The book talks about getting light in your eyes in the morning, and again in the afternoon as the sun goes down, to help encourage your body clock to run on time. Morning light tells your brain the day has started. Afternoon light helps it wind down.

How I do it: whatever project I'm working on comes out to the deck in the morning, even in winter. I'm not staring at the sun (please don't), just letting it wake me up with a coffee and a few rows. In the afternoon it's a yoga session or a dog walk as the sun goes down. And if I'm wiped out? I swap the afternoon walk for more crochet. Obviously.

The catch: it doesn't work if your eyes are glued to your phone. Sitting in the sun scrolling isn't getting the light where it needs to go. The cat has mastered this protocol. I'm still working on it.

Less scroll, more sleep

So many of us struggle with sleep, whether it's getting older, a stressful season of life, or just a brain that won't switch off.

Here's the science bit. The blue light from our screens tells the brain it's daytime. That keeps us alert and holds back melatonin, the hormone that makes us sleepy. So that "quick scroll" in bed is basically telling your brain it's time to start the day. Not ideal at 10:30pm.

The protocol is to put the phone down an hour before bed and replace it with something that helps instead. For me that's a few rows of crochet, or a good book. (Speaking of which, I'm taking suggestions for my next book report.) If it's crochet, you also go to bed having made something cool. Sleep and ego, both looked after.

Less scroll, more calm

Scrolling to feel less stressed? Phone use actually adds to stress. It hijacks our dopamine system, training us to chase the next quick hit. And it can make us feel inferior, watching everyone we know live their best lives while we're sitting on our phones.

I noticed this firsthand recently. After one of my rehab sessions I went to get a coffee and made a real effort to keep my phone in my bag while I waited. The first thing I noticed was that everyone else was on theirs. I watched with curiosity. The coffee guy had to call most people's names two or three times before they came back to the present.

I also noticed a man sitting on the street. I bought him some lunch, knelt down and had a chat. It felt great. And what a contrast: everyone around me lost in their screens, and what I could see once my eyes were unglued from mine.

The alternative to the scroll doesn't have to be big. Step away from whatever's stressing you (Meta ads, I'm looking at you) for even 5–10 minutes with something in your hands. For my fellow ADHD bunnies, sitting-still meditation is often just not happening. Tactile meditation is. A few minutes of stitches gives your brain something calm to hold onto.

Less scroll, more focus

Screens hijack our focus by training us to want instant, intense dopamine hits. The more we feed that, the more anything less exciting (work, chores, that email you've been avoiding) starts to feel boring, and the more we reach for the phone. A phone "break" makes focus worse, not better.

A tactile micro-break does the opposite. It gives your brain a rest without the dopamine hijack, so you come back to the task rather than further away from it.

My other focus trick is about switching tasks. I used to be able to juggle an inordinate number of tasks at once. It was my superpower. Now it's a distant memory. So these days, when I move from one task to another, I put a physical barrier in place: I click my fingers six times. It breaks the thought on the old task and signals the start of the new one. It sounds dumb. It works.

Less scroll, more here and now

This is my favourite one, and it's the personal growth protocol: being present.

There's a well-known study by Harvard researchers Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert that looked at how often our minds wander and how that affects happiness. They found our minds wander almost half the time, and that a wandering mind is a less happy one. Even during boring tasks, people were happier when their minds were on what they were actually doing than when they drifted somewhere else.

So if your mind is elsewhere half the day, there's plenty of room for improvement (for all of us).

Here's what I love about this. It's not about controlling what you think. It's about controlling where you anchor. When you notice your thoughts drifting to the past, the future, or the "not real" (hello, everyone's highlight reel), bring them back with simple questions about right now:

• What's the weather doing?
• What can I hear?
• What can I feel in my hands?
• How many people around me are on their phones? (Spoiler: most of them.)

That's really what meditation is for, bringing us back to the present. Crochet does it for me. It's hard to worry about next Tuesday when you're counting stitches.

Less scroll, more of whatever works for you

Of course, crochet isn't the only way to re-tether. Reading, sewing, gardening and growing things, exercise: they're all brilliant, and I do most of them myself. A few tips that have helped me along the way:

• Struggle to read? (Thanks, ADHD.) Try listening to the audiobook while you read along with book in front of you. Credit to Alex Hormozi for that one.
• Can't sit still to meditate? Guided meditation or hypnotherapy apps can help. Reach out if you want to know which ones I tried and finally settled on.
• Love the idea of painting? Me too, but it needs classes and a bit of setup, so it's more of an occasional thing for me.

So why is crochet my go-to? Because I can do it anywhere, anytime: at my desk, in the rain, on a cloudy day (under my 10,000 lux daylight lamp, naturally), in a waiting room, or in the ten minutes before school pickup. It's what worked for me. It won't be the same for everyone, and that's okay. Find your thing.

My own re-tethering

These protocols have quietly become part of my neuro rehab toolkit too. My rehab sessions are long and intense. Afterwards there's often a spike in symptoms, followed by a deep energy drop. It turns out rewiring a brain takes a lot of energy.

Morning sun, phone-free coffee runs, finger clicks and a few rows of crochet have become my way of riding those highs and lows. They help me recover not just from the injury, but from the hard work of recovering.

The takeaway

Protocols didn't tell me anything I didn't already feel in my bones. But it gave me the science behind it, and a much deeper sense of why The Hookery exists.

Less scroll, more sun. Less scroll, more sleep. Less scroll, more calm. Less scroll, more focus. Less scroll, more here and now.

Less scroll, more soul.

What's your re-tether? And what should my next book report be? Let me know.

If crochet sounds like it might be your thing, you can find your less scroll, more soul kit here.

Em x