Murdle Stopped Me From Doomscrolling
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I’ve tried all kinds of strategies to get my screen time down. I got a Hatch to banish my phone from the bedroom at night, set time limits on my apps (easily bypassed), and swapped my nighttime scroll for a Kobo. All of these strategies have made some impact, but nothing has been as effective at tearing me away from my finely tuned algorithm as Murdle. The logic game started online but has since evolved into a book with many editions. I bought my first one last year at Book Culture in Long Island City. It was placed conspicuously on a shelf, and I picked it up out of curiosity because it rhymed with Wordle, a game I play daily. I flipped through and within 30 seconds added it to my pile. I went home and played the first puzzle. Then another. I’ve long been a fan of logic games to the point that I once considered taking the LSAT when I learned logic games were part of the test. I enjoy the dopamine hit of solving a problem, especially one with many possible solutions. The feeling is not totally dissimilar to scrolling on Instagram and finding a delightful Reel or sinking an hour or so into Threads. I’m also paranoid about my brain atrophying, so I figured this was a low-cost way for me to stave off mental decline. What I didn’t expect is that it would become a regular part of my routine.
Every puzzle starts with a murder for Deductive Logico to solve. There are a few clues and a list of possible suspects, locations, and murder weapons. It’s like lots of mini-games of Clue. Each edition of Murdle has 100 puzzles. Those are separated by difficulty, which helps to avoid the monotony of the puzzles becoming easy. Even the easier puzzles can be difficult — I recently bought the second edition of the book and found myself sitting for a while in a coffee shop trying to figure out what I was missing. Typically, each puzzle takes me about five or so minutes to solve, faster if I employ the help of my wife. It’s about the same amount of time I scroll in the middle of the day when my brain wants a break from a more important task. While it hasn’t replaced my feed by any stretch of the imagination, it creates some space between me and my phone.
It’s worked so well for me that I plan on buying a few copies for friends this holiday season, many of whom are trying to get their screen time down too. It’s much cheaper than a Brick and easy to whip out while in transit. It also trains your brain to associate idle time with something other than scrolling. While an app blocker essentially gives you back your time by stopping the reward cycle of getting on Instagram or TikTok, it doesn’t really offer a suggestion for what to do with however many minutes you’ve wrestled back. Murdle has proved to be a solid solution.
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Murdle: Volume 1
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