I spend way too much time browsing Reddit, YouTube/Twitch, and Facebook. Thankfully, I never got into Insta or TikTok. I want to drastically reduce the amount of time I spend interacting with these sites, but they feel so deeply engrained into my psyche that it feels nearly impossible.
I've tried some of the simpler suggestions like configuring a Tampermonkey extension to limit access, or installing Cold Turkey (https://getcoldturkey.com/). The problem is that I know how to work around these things (you can just edit your clock time to mitigate Cold Turkey ...) and so, eventually, the cravings become enough that I do so even though it's not in my best interest.
Another issue is that sometimes sites have valuable information. For example, some subreddits have useful information related to programming, fitness, etc. and I'll encounter them through a Google search. If I'm prevented from accessing this information when doing legitimate research then I find that frustrating and wish there was an exception to the rule. I'm not sure how grounded that stance is, though.
In the physical world, I've had great success defeating habits by limiting physical access. I don't keep snacks at home and, if I must, I'll put them in a timed, locking container (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E9J3MLM) such that I'm unable to open it when having a craving. This helped me with things like delicious toppings for salads which I wanted to keep on-hand, but not be tempted by 24/7.
The problem is more challenging when working with digital addictions. I'm wondering what my options are here? I assume something related to parental controls at/near the hardware level and a time-release password? Not sure if anything time-based is viable if I can just mess with my computer's clock time, but maybe if it dials out to a third-party server for timing info and I don't go so far as to MITM the response? I'd prefer solutions that I'm able to implement myself rather than relying on repeatedly handing passwords off to friends, but am understanding if that's a hard requirement.
Anyone had any success here? Thanks!
What do you want to do instead of digital media consumption? If you do more of those you'll naturally have less time for browsing.
For me, that's been taking up the following (the specific items change with time, but when I notice myself spending more time mindlessly scrolling it is a good reminder that I need something else to keep me busy):
* Running (with race goals) - doing this 4x a week sure takes up a lot of my time.
* Physical meetups (local philosophy groups, museum events, actively scheduling coffee with friends, etc)
* Crafts (cross stitch - started when I took on an ambitious Birthday gift project for my boyfriend and now it's kind of a meditative experience)
* Studying (part-time university course where I have to read a paper and complete a study guide once a week)
Those four things, along with full time work, don't leave much time for mindless scrolling unless I intentionally want to just chill and schedule a block of that in (and I don't feel guilty about doing that anymore because with all the other stuff enriching my life I feel there's nothing wrong with some occasional browsing).
Feels like I should be able to just browse the top of Reddit once a week and get the gist of what's happened, or limit my YouTube to a weekly "All In" podcast to get the interesting highlights, etc.
Delete any accounts you have with these services.
When you’re home, put your phone away, don’t carry it on you.
Read the book “How to break up with your phone” by Catherine Anne Price.
Have one or two books that every time you are tempted to go to one of those services you pick up and read that book instead.
Meditate. Exercise. Do gardening.
BUT ultimately… figure out the root cause of your addiction and work on that.
I unsubbed from all my subreddits a long time ago and don't really comment much. I engage with the site the same if I'm logged out. I'm pretty close to deleting my Facebook, but have at least trimmed friends down to below 100. I suppose I could at least make the transition to just using Messenger for Desktop instead of full-fledged Facebook to preserve the few contacts I message on that platform.
I'll give the book a skim and see if it has anything insightful. Thanks for the suggestion.
I agree I could be meditating more. I have a subscription for Ten Percent Happier and dabble in it, but rarely have streaks longer than a month. I agree that it's possible practicing meditation more heavily would give me a stronger ability to see my mind's desires and respond to them rather than being subject to them.
The actions just feel subconscious at this point. Like when tests/CI are running then I flick back to media on a second screen, or when I get stuck on a problem or am having trouble getting into the zone then I procrastinate by thumbing through media. These aren't really times where I feel I can get up and go do an entirely different activity that puts me away from the screen. It's more like a behavioral pattern that subtlety saps my efficiency when I'm trying to be productive, you know?
Try to read it by substituting “Sean Anderson” for “I” and critically evaluate what you think of Sean Anderson’s explanation…
One thing I noticed about the "hard stuff" that I procrastinate away from is that I am a very slow thinker, and usually, the reason why I don't get into it straight away is that the first idea I have is not the right one, and I kind of know that in the back of my brain, and so letting the ideas flow freely in the brain while doing something else helps the good solution cristallize in a slow way. So when that's the case, I just need to embrace that and work on something else that's simpler like small frontend stuff that gives you good satisfaction for very little thinking.
Anyways, other things that sort of works for me are : lifting small weights while waiting, or doing grip training (I am climbing, so these are things that help for that), or doing dead hangs (I work from home...). Take a short walk. Like I literally used to walk back and forth to the bathroom when I was a kid.
I think that something like a underdesk bike, that's connected to a game on your screen would be kind of nice, you'd pause it while you work, and when you build something, you'd add an extra mile to that game... I don't know, I'm just making stuff up now.
Back to work ffs.
But surely you can also agree that environmental factors play a role in determining whether willpower is effective or not. When I was quitting smoking marijuana I didn't keep paraphernalia adjacent to me all day and tell myself to just deal with it. Same with alcohol. Exercise routines were easier to establish when paired with audiobooks, pre-committing to the activity socially or at least by laying the clothes out, etc.
The digital stuff has just been really challenging. I've been on a computer basically daily for 25+ years. I've used Reddit and Facebook daily for 15+ years. My profession, and, frankly, my identity, puts me on a computer all day and thus adjacent to my digital addictions. That has made it a lot more challenging.
I'm not even looking to use the computer less. I just want to be able to focus on long-form writing, software development, and less dopamine-inducing forms of online media.