
Take control over your feeds to regain mindfulness - hosolmaz
https://solmaz.io/thoughts/digital-hygiene-feeds/
======
dmje
This resonated, especially the bit about being particularly militant with
smartphone use. I'm now 2 years into using a dumb phone (I have a smartphone
on WiFi at home but my sim is in a dumb phone).

The control you have on desktop is considerably greater than on mobile, so my
strategy has been to avoid social, email, news on the small screen and instead
do this on desktop where I can use better time and attention management tools
like getfocus to ensure I'm not distracted.

I wrote about it here [[https://variousbits.net/2018/05/11/im-happier-without-
a-smar...](https://variousbits.net/2018/05/11/im-happier-without-a-
smartphone/)]. I should write again now, 2 years down the line. Some stuff has
changed (dumb phone is now a CAT, I'm now without any social media at all and
CV19 has provided some interesting challenges) - but I'm still basically doing
the same thing.

My fundamental reasoning is that I live in an astonishingly beautiful bit of
the world, I have wonderful kids and wife, and my life is basically superb. To
be interrupted by some bullshit notification when I could be looking at my
wife or the sea or a sunset is essentially what I'm trying to avoid, and my
strategy basically works.

------
asciimike
I unfollowed everyone on Facebook which means that my news feed is entirely
free of content (conveniently, this includes ads). I now spend exactly zero
hours per week scrolling mindlessly through Facebook, but I can still use
social login, events, and check in on people if I want to (though TBH nobody
in my age group still uses FB).

Edit: script to help unfollow:
[https://gist.github.com/renestalder/c5b77635bfbec8f94d28](https://gist.github.com/renestalder/c5b77635bfbec8f94d28)

Similarly: no FB or Twitter app on my phone, and a time limit of 15 mins set
on Twitter and other "mindless" apps.

Related: turning off email notifications was the best thing I ever did for my
sanity.

~~~
GaryNumanVevo
+1 for Unfollowing everyone on FB. I log in once a week to check event
invites. Well not so much during quarantine anymore.

+1 for setting a timer. I give myself 15 minutes to scroll mindlessly.

------
GekkePrutser
> Rule #2: No feeds or social media apps on the phone. Your phone is always
> within your reach.

Lol I'm soooo not a typical person.

My computer is always within reach. My phone is usually on the charger while
I'm at home :D, I didn't use it much at all during the quarantine. Why use a
6" screen when I have 24" 4K multi-monitor goodness?

But I agree, I banned FB, Twitter out of my life and even deleted my reddit
account. I just lurk on reddit now in a few dedicated groups, that's all.

I do like HN though, as it's usually about actually interesting stuff and good
discussions. Unlike Twitter and FB where it's the opposite. On reddit it
really strongly depends on the community you're in :) But I never feel like I
waste my time on HN, every time I visit it I feel like I've learned something.
And I just _love_ the information density. No scrolling through lots of
whitespace and superfluous pictures.

~~~
terminalcommand
Just out of curiosity, would you prefer 24” 4K multi-monitor setup, or a giant
single 50” 4K TV with good input lag and latency?

As for the post, IMHO the danger of using your phone to access these is that
you’re constantly thinking of the media you’re consuming without any breaks.
For example, at universityvI was extremely proficient in distracting myself
for hours on end by reading every single comment on HN submissions. I started
the day with mindless wikipedia readings and HN and didn’t have much
energy/mental capacity to do anything else.

~~~
GekkePrutser
Definitely my 24". I'd have to sit too far from the 50" TV. But I wasn't
really clear in my post. I don't actually have 2 4K monitors.

What I have is 1 24" 4K screen in the middle (fairly cheap LG one), and on
each side I've got 2 old Eizo L568's, 17" 1280x1024 in 4:3 format. They're
almost as tall as the 24" widescreen, but they're low-DPI. macOS deals with
this the best by far, on Windows I have scaling issues.

This works well for me as I can have the main content I'm working on in the
middle without a split, and on the sides I put stuff I'm monitoring. Like
stuff installing on a VM, home assistant, sometimes whatsapp etc. And if I
want to focus on something I can just turn them off (each one of them actually
uses more power than the one 4K thanks to their CCFL backlights)

But I'm just not a big phone user. I spend a good number of hours at the
PC/Mac (and Linux - I use all 3) every day, and much less time on my phone.

------
devmunchies
I would recommend one simple rule that has had a huge impact on me:

 _No mobile screens (phones, tablets, laptops) in a bedroom_

I no longer lay on my phone at night. I sometimes stand in the kitchen and
browse before I plug in to charge for the night, but when I go to my bedroom,
I got to sleep or read a book. In the morning I don't reach for my phone. I
lay there and stare or get up.

It took about a week for the urges to go away.

~~~
farnsworth
Look at this guy with his fancy home that has more than one room

~~~
devmunchies
your houses don't all have more than one room?

~~~
rpeden
Not all homes are houses!

I've known few people in Toronto who live in single-room apartments with floor
plans similar to this: [https://thecrossways.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/07/Floorpla...](https://thecrossways.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/07/Floorplan_b2.pdf)

~~~
brailsafe
Splitting one in Vancouver with my gf atm. It's worked out for a year so far
and it's a great way to keep possessions low.

------
afarrell
Yes, it is important to remove the things which you don't want to do. But it
is important to set yourself up for the things you _do_ want to do.

Humans with iron deficiencies often find themselves compelled to chew ice[1].
Humans often have other unmet needs, such as the need for deep intellectually-
stimulating conversation. I know very few people want to randomly drop what
they are doing to have a 2-hour conversation about game theory. So, I've found
Calendly useful for helping satisfy that need.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagophagia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagophagia)

------
jlelse
A good way is to ban algorithmic feeds. Just use RSS and you'll reach the end
of the feed. No endless scrolling.

~~~
6510
This also gets rid of everyone who thinks twitter, reddit and facebook are
useful aggregators and/or worthy of a monopoly position. HN is getting
increasingly wonderful as the other platforms decay. Someone showed me a
facebook discussion/argument initiated by someone trying to sell a surplus (he
called it) of 27 chicken eggs slightly above supermarket prices. I'm in my 3rd
day of recovery from it.

~~~
wasdfff
You can actually follow hn, reddit, and even social media with some tools on
RSS. I have a vote and comment threshold for HN threads for my personal feeds,
for example.

------
wildpeaks
I dread the day the trick using Search to force Twitter to show a
chronological view of just the people I follow will stop working:

\- without replies:
[https://twitter.com/search?q=filter%3Afollows%20-filter%3Are...](https://twitter.com/search?q=filter%3Afollows%20-filter%3Areplies&src=typd&f=live)

\- with replies:
[https://twitter.com/search?q=filter%3Afollows%20-filter%3A&s...](https://twitter.com/search?q=filter%3Afollows%20-filter%3A&src=typed_query&f=live)

They already send irrelevant notifications (sometimes even about tweets that I
already read & even retweeted with comment) if they feel like you're not
engaged enough.

------
baxtr
_> Rule #2: No feeds or social media apps on the phone

Your phone is always within your reach. Access feeds only on your laptop, in
order not to condition yourself to constantly check it. Don’t install social
media or video apps on your phone._

I used to block HN on my smartphone through a simple URL block rule. HN was
only available on my laptop for me. I felt way better because every time I saw
the message “page blocked” I realized that I had landed on HN subconsciously.
It developed into something like a reflex. Pick up the phone, open browser,
surf to HN. Nowadays, I have turned it on only for specific times of the day.
But honestly, I feel like going back to blocking it completely again.

------
SkyMarshal
_> Your brain has a limited capacity to process and hold information. Schedule
a certain hour of the day to receive it, and don’t surpass it. Example: No
more than 30 minutes of social media, restricted to 10–11 am._

Suggestion: schedule your social media time for the afternoon or evening, and
do high-value work during your freshest, clearest-thinking brain time -
morning and early afternoon, or for night owl hacker schedule folks, late at
night.

------
markus_zhang
I'm trying to do pretty much everything it described and have to say the most
important part is Rule 3 combined with Rule 4 i.e. one has to limit his/her
purposes. Once you can do that, the rest just follow along.

Throughout my life I have been wasting tons of time scratching surfaces here
and there but never applied the little knowledge gained or went deeper. A
complete waste of time I must say.

------
ege_erdogan
> Rule #5: Schedule and limit your exposure

I wrote a simple Go program to email me weekly updates of the RSS feeds I
follow. It runs on AWS Lambda with weekly triggers from Cloud Watch and sends
emails using AWS SES. [0]

If you are following a high number of feeds, it is a life-changer to go from
the mentality of "let's see if there is something new" to "let's wait for the
email on Monday".

[0]: [https://github.com/ege-erdogan/rss-email-lambda](https://github.com/ege-
erdogan/rss-email-lambda). You have to setup some environment variables and
then set up the cloud services.

------
localhost
If you use Twitter, you should use tweetdeck[1], not Twitter as your UX. I
create lists grouped into categories like "Pandemic", "Tech", etc. Lists can
be public or private. Assign accounts to lists. Add columns to your Tweetdeck
and introduce additional mute words for each column.

This gives you AFAIK a chronological feed without a bunch of random things
injected into your main feed. I find this a very satisfying way of using
Twitter.

[1] [https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/](https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/)

------
BrunoBernardino
Something I've started doing many years ago that allowed me to cut back on
"wasted time" was reading websites/feeds/blogs only once per day. I automated
it and eventually built a product around it, since a few people asked me about
that routine.

It allows you to receive a daily email with a digest of the news about the day
before. The "news" will be any update on any website, or blog you follow
(including public twitter accounts).

It's News, calm [1].

Bringing calm and tranquility into people's lives is something I strive to do
in every product I work. Hopefully you'll find it useful.

[1] [https://news.calm.sh](https://news.calm.sh)

------
boopmaster
outside of the 5PM to 9AM schedule, also consider:

uninstall slack, MS teams, etc. uninstall MS office altogether decline
meetings. ask for justification for your time. barter your time with people
that would book it.

keep a calendar use these products in a browser on a timed interval, and set a
limit on how long you have to respond.

~~~
GekkePrutser
Uninstall? That's a bit heavy.. Lot of work setting all that stuff up again
every time.

PS: If you use an Android mobile you can use a Work Profile and switch all
your work stuff off with one click. If you use a computer you probably have a
separate one for work which can also switch off easily :P

~~~
brunoqc
> switch all your work stuff off with one click

How do you do that? I wonder if it's possible with "fake work profile" like
when using Island. I can't use a work profile without using gsuite right?

~~~
GekkePrutser
Normally work profiles get created by an MDM application but I believe it's
also possible to create one locally. I know the appaloosa app can do it.

You definitely don't need gsuite. It works with any MDM. We don't use gsuite
in work but O365 and it works fine there.

------
luord
I can't get behind the last two. I know they can be beneficial, but they can
also be damaging.

I follow a few people with whom I disagree with fundamentally and I don't
block anything they say, nor any other topic. I just don't want my social
media to turn into an echo chamber.

Reading stuff I dislike helps keeping me grounded and reminds me that people
who disagree with me are still people, flesh and blood, instead of faceless
others.

I feel like many, many problems could be solved if more people remembered
that. If nothing else, it could reduce polarization.

~~~
hosolmaz
Maybe I should rephrase it, or make an addition. We do have a societal
responsibility to acknowledge and respect opposing views. And I do keep
following people who keep it civil and respect the discourse and the medium.

The ones I unfollow are generally shills, people who make absolute statements,
demagogues that heavily depend on rhetoric instead of substance.
Unfortunately, Twitter's format pushes people into this behavior too. In that
case, I block, in order not to become a conduit for these people's toxic
messages. I block out of responsibility for my own and my followers' sanity.

> I feel like many, many problems could be solved if more people remembered
> that. If nothing else, it could reduce polarization.

IMO the platform design and parameters cause this polarization. It's not
enough to educate people _outside_ the platform, when the platform is a hotbed
of viral messages, and the dominant strategy is to be an "asshole", according
to the etiquette of the outside world. On the platform, however, it is what
makes your account successful.

One idea is to define strict rules of digital etiquette. Kids could be taught
these starting at a young age. You could also enforce them algorithmically on
the platform.

------
aronpye
Mostly agree with all the points, but you should still be careful not to
construct an echo chamber for yourself by only allowing what you like to see /
read and banning everything else.

------
aftergibson
One thing that really helped for me was stricter banning of mindless browing
on my phone, on IOS(using ScreenTime with a password I don't know), I block:

    
    
      * Email
      * Browser
      * Any feed apps
      * Games
    

If there's any ability to distract myself with my phone, I'll relapse to bad
habits. But with this in in place, I just forget where my phone is and it's
mostly just a place for messaging and podcasts.

These days I often lose my phone, that feels like progress.

------
caiobegotti
I have historically followed all the first five rules (even the one about not
having ALL social media apps at once in my phone, only some of them) so the
last rules "block generously and ruthlessly" and "mute words" end up looking
quite childish after the first five because you naturally won't put yourself
in those situations if you followed all the others. If you consume shitty
content in huge volumes of course you will need to control the smell
eventually.

------
DevKoala
I actually blocked the feeds on my main development machines so that I am not
tempted to visit them when I commit to work.

I left them available on the phone, but perhaps I should block them too.
Outside of HN, most sources of content are just trying to exploit my lack of
focus for data gathering and the like.

PS: I quit social media years ago and that is a huge positive IMHO.

------
Hitton
I can't agree with rules #6 and #7. That's how you'll end up living in a
bubble. Possibly even become extremist.

~~~
ImaCake
That's interesting because my intuition points in the opposite direction. By
blocking emotive content I am less exposed to things that will swing my views
towards extremes. I bet there is whole field of research on this topic that I
know nothing about. I wonder what the consensus is amoung those that study
these things?

~~~
nishparadox
I think in some ways we end up living in a self-made "bubble". Chances are we
might get saturated with our own "belief templates" (for me this has been the
case.). But then, no idea if it's statistically valid. There might even be a
whole cognitive research on this particular topic.

------
jariel
Or just get rid of them all.

You'll be surprised at how irrelevant almost all of it is.

~~~
jobigoud
Did you not find this post through one particular non chronological feed?

~~~
jariel
I'm not sure if I consider HN a 'feed', or rather, any more so than any other
news source is a 'feed'.

I don't have it installed, I don't get notifications, I don't really miss it
when I'm gone, I don't care about my account, I don't maintain any status.

I find links to interesting articles.

------
tonetheman
Block generously and ruthlessly is advice I follow.

It has made reading Facebook tolerable.

------
ashishb
Uninstall apps. Login on website. And put login behind 2-factor.

------
random_dork1
Banning words seems the wrong way to go about it.

~~~
jjice
I get what you're saying, but I think that blocking certain words can allow
one to make sure they don't get side tracked by common click bait articles.
This blog post gives an example with ISIS, which used to be constantly in US
headlines a few years ago, yet it never affected the vast majority of
Americans. Instead, it made viewers anxious and spend an extensive amount of
time reading and discussing a topic that really didn't have an affect on them.
That time could have been placed else where in their lives, such as learning a
new skill or developing personal relationships: things that would actually
affect their lives, and in a positive way.

A common argument against muting words that I see is that it is forceful
ignorance, but one must be aware of a concept before deciding to mute that
word. That means that no matter what, before someone goes blocking something
like "ISIS", the would have had to read about it and noticed that their media
feeds have become a click bait ring of nonsense around it instead of actual
information.

Also, even if you don't use social media, if there is something that is
actually important and requiring your attention (such as the current police
brutality focus in America), it will make its way into your life. I don't read
the news or use social media, but I knew about COVID when it was coming
because it was such a large issue that it couldn't be avoided unintentionally.

~~~
random_dork1
The way I handle stuff like the ISIS example is to stop following the fear
mongering sources and to simply scroll by those headlines. Words banning is
lot's of work when you don't have a centralised place to manage them and might
lead me to misuse it.

