Have you ever locked in?

No, not finding yourself locked in a lift or a bathroom.

We’re talking about locking IN – the phrase you might have seen on social media or heard people saying lately.

To lock in is to focus; to endure short-term pain for long-term gain – whether that be building your body or your business. Do it today – not tomorrow. Everything else is a distraction.

Motivational and ironic videos feature the phrase, which has been searched for online more this year than ever before, according to Google. So how exactly are people locking in and is it helping or hindering them?

“My generation thrives off romanticising things,” says Dani, a 20-year-old student at the University of Manchester.

“I feel like locking in is a way of romanticising getting into your deep work and making that decision of like, ‘okay, it’s time to get stuff done’.” She compares it to tunnel vision.

In her case it was a marathon revision session until 3am recently ahead of 10 hours in exam labs the following day. Her phone was kept on silent; electro-beats hummed in the background; digestive biscuits were devoured.

In recent weeks as the nights have drawn in and days become colder, some influencers have been telling followers to stop missing the summer and see this as the perfect opportunity to lock in – to embrace their winter arc.

“I think it comes from TV shows and anime where you have characters with a villain arc,” says Dani. She thinks feeling as though you are on a transformative journey of your own helps you stay on track with the tasks necessary to achieve your goals.

Karagii agrees. She has turned her passion for gaming into a living and now works as a professional content creator in that industry – she locked in.

For her, the phrase also serves as a personal rallying cry because of the sexism she faces “almost every other day” when playing games online.

Her streams can last 11 hours so she has to ensure she eats regularly and spends time away from the keyboard – usually watching anime, playing with her cat or reading.

The 29-year-old says the comments she receives range from the patronising, “you’re good for a girl”, to the insulting – “get back in the kitchen”.

“I tell myself ‘I need to lock in’ so [I remember] I can also play well, just like everyone else,” she tells me from her home in Surrey.

“And also, remind myself that I need to be a role model to the young women that watch me.”

That struggle for acceptance is also something Emma felt about joining a gym – but she found a way to overcome it.

She initially did workouts at home and reduced the calories in her diet, as she felt she needed to fit a certain image of a gym goer.

Now Emma, 28, feels this was damaging and unnecessary.

After a year of training at home, she eventually joined a gym and enjoyed the physical and mental boost of lifting weights.

So much so, she began working as a personal trainer in Lancashire this year and thinks one of the best ways to lock in is setting realistic and achievable goals.

Having a methodical plan and a clear structure can help you get started but she cautions that you can burn out by locking in too much.

“That’s completely normal and I think people should be reassured that is kind of part of the process and you’re not always going to feel motivated 365 days a year,” she tells me.

Emma says there are ways to help avoid burning out. These include freshening up your workout routine, trying a new fitness class, or taking part in a challenge for a short length of time – like cycling a certain number of miles in a month.

“Accountability goes a long way as well when your motivation is low,” she adds. Partnering up with a friend for your workout can help spur you into doing them more regularly.

Adam Aleksic, a linguist who posts online as Etymology Nerd, says locking in’s origins aren’t certain but its use appears to have begun in the early 2000s – particularly in the African American community. There’s an Urban Dictionary reference dating back to 2009.

But it’s only in the last year that it has taken off online, whether it be a motivational video for gains in the gym or ironically in a meme about a lazy cat.

“The more a meme gets readapted and reused, the more chances it has to stick in our actual vocabulary,” the 24-year-old explains.

Despite that, locking in didn’t make it onto the word of the year lists for 2025. Collins’ word of the year was “vibe coding”, while “parasocial” was Cambridge Dictionary’s.

As well as using it to motivate themselves, Dani and her course mates often use the locking in phrase light-heartedly.

Some days they all work on the same project in the same computer lab at uni. Telling a friend to lock in on what might well be a boring day often raises a smile.

“It has that element of connecting us all,” says Dani. “I’ve never actually realised, given how much we use it, that it’s slang.”

After her 10-hour day in labs a fortnight ago, Dani indulged her love of art – something she does to stop burning out.

“My friend and I were painting until 4am after our exam,” she tells me. They were locked in.