
Ask HN: Bad habits - mshafrir
What are your bad habits? Did you overcome them?  If so, how? If not, why?
======
yan
Checking time-wasting web sites much more than I should.

Before that, I had issues with keeping with the habit of exercising. I think I
solved that a month ago by starting to use the Seinfeld method[1] to keep
track of it. I will probably try to move everything I have trouble staying
with to the calendar.

[1] [http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-
se...](http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret)

------
DanielBMarkham
I have an addictive personality, which means I like doing everything too much:
coding, writing, visiting interesting web sites, smoking, drinking, eating.
Basically if it has any sort of positive feedback loop at all, I can make a
bad habit out of it.

Fortunately I began suspecting this early in life, so I didn't end up a coke-
head or worse. Instead I've learned to balance all of my bad habits in a way
that continues to optimize productivity for me. So for example after smoking
for five years in my early 20s, I quit cold turkey. As for eating, I'm
learning to control my blood sugar levels. I'm finding there is a blood-
sugar/caffeine/alcohol feedback system that I'm dismantling. But then there
are big problems that I'm still working on, like procrastination and too much
web reading (which are related!) I probably lose dozens of hours a week on
these. Sometimes I make progress, such as no TV (except for movies) Still
others seem intractable, like enjoying coding so much I keep over-coding
things.

I think as you get older you begin to realize how screwed up you are -- if you
are introspective at all, that is. Some folks aren't introspective at all, or
if they are they aren't able to critically see what needs fixing. These are
the ones to be pitied. But introspection always has kind of a sad quality to
it. I know for me it was a lot more fun when I used to think I was bullet-
proof.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Your post is pretty close to where I am, 'cept I gave up smoking when I was 12
(I still fancy a ciggy occassionally!), apart from a few occassions since.

I was speculating whether or not computers make me overall less productive or
not - I'm convinced they do. I need other people around to work with, then I
can get "addicted" to helping and progressing the task rather than anything
else.

Sadly I'm working largely autonomously despite efforts to change that.

~~~
jacquesm
You gave up smoking when you were 12 ??? Wow, most people that smoke would not
even have started by that age...

Apologies if it is too much of a private question, feel free to ignore: At
what age did you start ? Were your parents aware ?

~~~
pbhjpbhj
10; parents, probably though I thought not at the time - it wasn't exactly a
big habit, probably like one a week! Just one of those things one does to try
and be cool and fit in. Then I realised it's stupid. I was probably a little
under 12 then.

My mates folks owned a pub, his parents definitely knew we were getting our
fags there.

------
ScottWhigham
Responding negatively to generic posts that ask questions yet reveal nothing
about the poster's reasons for the question nor contain any elaboration on the
poster's part as to their own <insert inane question topic of discussion> in
the post.

~~~
niyazpk
Up-voting clever comments that add no value, but are such a pleasure to read
and understand.

------
profquail
Workoholism.

I enjoy getting away from the computer and having fun just as much as anyone
else, but with my mostly-full-time freelancing work + writing most of the
codebase for a startup on my own, I have the bad habit of telling myself that
if I do some extra work one night I can stop a little early the next night.
But the next day comes around and I'll do the same thing all over again.

------
harry
Pack a day smoker.

Quit cold turkey 3 years ago - through willpower. Not impossible & not easy.

~~~
raju
A smoker myself - Not that much anymore, but still a smoker. Need to find that
willpower.

Also, exercise procrastinator. My problem is I don't put on weight, so weight
loss (or maintenance) is not an incentive. But I know I need to work out, and
have been doing some lately, even if it is a stiff 1 hour walks in the
evenings

~~~
sho
As a former smoker, let me recommend the drug Champix to you. It really worked
for me. Quite the miracle drug, actually - you just kind of stop wanting to
smoke, and keep forgetting about it. Before you know it you haven't smoked for
weeks, and you don't want to, either.

Strongly recommended.

~~~
warfangle
Watch out for Chantix.. it really messes with your brain chemistry. I couldn't
use it: it gave me insane technicolor nightmares. After a week of sleep
deprivation I gave up on the stuff.

~~~
sho
Ha! That's very true. You do get very vivid dreams. Maybe that's a problem if
you're the type to have nightmares but for me they were quite .. agreeable,
lol.

------
bbuffone
Procrastination - I haven’t been able to overcome it yet, things that mitigate
it is - keep track of tasks, make them small easily achievable. Also make a
new list every morning.

~~~
billswift
Procrastination has many, many causes. I strongly recommend Burka and Yuen's
book "Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It" and Rubin's
"Overcoming Indecisiveness".

------
a2tech
1) Social Media sites (reddit, hacker news, slashdot, facebook) 2) Nail
chewing 3) Excercising

And no-I've never been able to overcome bad habits. My short attention span
when it comes to learning has helped me though-since I'm quick on the uptake
when I go from subject to subject it lets me suck up a lot of info. And nail
chewing..I wish I could quit but unfortunately my fingers are always there and
I end up chewing them when I'm concentrating.

~~~
erikwiffin
I've dealt with nail chewing my entire life. In the past year, I've (mostly)
overcome it.

My solution: chewing gum. Keeps my mouth busy so I don't bite my nails. I go
through a lot of gum, but I've broken the habit of biting my nails, so I'm
slowly weaning off the gum.

~~~
quizbiz
why didn't i think of gum?

------
TrevorJ
Reading this site while I should be working. (Not being snarky, it's
completely true.)

I also do art direction for film and video productions which has led to an
insane need for me to save _anything_ I think may someday come in handy.
Suffice it to say I have a huge pile of junk that I just cannot get rid of and
it's growing.

------
cmos
Sleepwalking. It's been a couple years, but I still write my hotel room number
on my hand when I travel.

~~~
imp
Is that a habit that can be broken?

------
zackham
All sorts of bad habits crop up left and right. Instead of going with the
"willpower" method I've adopted what my friends and I call the "moneymouth"
method (short for put your money where your mouth is). Exploit your honesty
and financial sensibility by making bets to architect your habits.

Real examples: I'm lazy and get up late, but this system got me up before 7am
daily for 3 weeks. I wanted to begin practicing guitar, I practiced for 30
minutes daily for a month with this. Right now I'm riding my bicycle 100 miles
a week. I am not generally known for my extreme willpower to do stuff like
this, I think I just found a functional self-exploit.

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jacquesm
HN. No. Because there is just too much good stuff here and too little time in
a day.

The 'noprocrast' is great, and I use it occasionally but then you see that
google has a new beta out or that friendfeed gets bought and it gets disabled
again...

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Mz
I suppose this would be the perfect place for the following joke: Most of my
bad habits have had gray hair and foreign names. I don't have any at the
moment, so I guess that makes me perfect (for now).

On a more serious note: My sense of humor is a bad habit that gets me into hot
water. (Thus I imagine this post will be badly downmodded into serious
negatives. ;-) ) I have half-baked plans to do a blog or webcomic or something
as an outlet in hopes of spending less time in hot water.

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eswat
Keeping Colloquy/IRC up while I'm working. Just can't find the strength to
close it like I could with email or Twitter.

Disabling highlight notifications helps a lot though...

------
niyazpk
Avoiding direct questions about bad habits by answering something like "I
would have told some of my really bad habits if HN allowed anonymous
comments".

------
babyboy808
Super Procrastinator, I mean I'm here and I should be working.

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kierank
Nail biting.

Yes and no. Now it's not as bad as it used to be.

~~~
Deadsunrise
Every time you notice that you are biting your nails or have the hands close
to your mouth slap yourself in the face. Do it hard the first couple of times
trying to surprise yourself. I ended years of nail biting doing this, in fact
it works so well that I even wrote about it a couple months ago (in spanish:
[http://deadsunrise.net/post/10-Como%20dejar%20de%20comerse%2...](http://deadsunrise.net/post/10-Como%20dejar%20de%20comerse%20las%20u%C3%B1as)
)

You can do other things like screaming or standing up fast or some other
unusual action, it will help you to identify the habit and stop it.

------
access_denied
I have many bad habits. My absolute top-success in overcoming them was getting
rid of smoking cigs. And I really mean, getting rid of it, even in my
thinking. You see, the nicotine addiction is just the minor part in smoking,
it is not that hard, other drugs are harder to get rid of in my experience.
But the manipulation in your thinking that comes with years-long smoking, that
is astonishing. And the main factor that makes it hard to quit smoking is a
deep fear that life will never again be as awesome as it was with the cigs
(even if the smoking destroys so much life moments all the time).

I got rid of it by reading the book "Easy way out" by Allen Carr. I highly
recommend his stuff. I did read the book 3 times in a row until all the
thinking damage in my head was gone. But then it was gone and after smoking
heavily for 8 years I am now out for over 6 years.

If you think about quitting smoking, try Allen Carrs method, I truly recommend
it, from man to man ;-)

