

How to curb Internet addiction? - rwhitman

Sometimes I feel like my job is akin to being a professional Crack tester. I clearly have an addiction to FB, Twitter, Email, RSS etc but they are all absolutely crucial to my work. Its affecting my productivity bigtime. What can I do?
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almightyon
I'm a student having a hard time having to study 6+ hours a day on the 8 hour
free time I have, trying to enter the university I aim for (I'm Brazilian).
When I started this regime, the hardest habit to drop was the internet, of
course ;) My solution was radical. I gave myself a fixed (and limited) time
frame where I could browse, check on email, update social network profiles,
etc. I've been studying programming for a long time also, and there's a proper
time frame for that too.

However I acknowledge it may be harder if you're in between: trying to control
yourself but having it crucial to your job. As hard as t may be, I could only
recommend my own strategy: trying to organize your time properly, and stick to
it.

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goodside
It's odd to me that nobody ever makes a connection between social media
addiction and more traditional problems with repetitive checking. If the
people who checked their Facebook feeds 500 times a day were checking anything
more mundane like whether they turned off their ovens or locked their car
doors (either of which is more important), it would instantly be recognized as
OCD.

This doesn't imply that people who are addicted to social media actually
_have_ OCD, rather that social media is a sort of supernormal stimulus for
"checkability", in the same class as slot machines and chocolate chip cookies.
Regardless, it should suggest the hypothesis that SSRIs, which help eliminate
the compulsions of OCD, might also reduce the Internet-based compulsions the
negative impact the lives of normal people. Anecdotally, taking SSRIs has
helped my Internet addiction immensely, though the usual caveats of n=1
studies apply.

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andrewf
As I understand it, people with OCD are checking to subdue an anxiety. They
fear that the oven is still on and can't convince themselves otherwise - but
checking it over and over helps.

Repetitive Facebook checking is supposedly more like an addiction - people are
chasing the endorphin rush that comes with finding a new message (or winning
at the table) rather than trying to chase away anxiety.

~~~
turtle4
From people I've observed, I would say that at least half are attempting to
subdue the anxiety that they are somehow missing out on something that is
going on. As if they couldn't be the 10th person to accept a party invite, or
couldn't bear to not be the first to know that somebody is pregnant or getting
married or breaking up, or whatever. I think the OCD comparison is accurate.
Not for everyone, but for a substantial subset.

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adamcrowe
<http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/>

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jrnkntl
Here is the accompanying Mac app: <http://pomodoro.ugolandini.com/>

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klon
This tool could be helpful if you are on OS X:
<http://visitsteve.com/work/selfcontrol/>

Page also contains links to other useful apps. I really like Spirited Away.

After rereading the post, maybe not applicable if the sites are crucial to get
work done.

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whimsy
I like the LeechBlock firefox plugin.

~~~
lemming
I use this, and only allow HN and Google Reader during my lunch break. It
works pretty well.

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baroova
I was addicted to news feeds so I used a filter to block myself ( Procon
Latte, a firefox plugin). I am clean for more than a month now.

For increasing productivity, use pomodoro or similiar simple/simpler
techniques. Its all about creating a habit.

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kalendae
how about using something like <http://www.slifeweb.com/> I am quite curious
to hear about whether these tools help or not and maybe ways of using it that
I haven't thought of.

~~~
rwhitman
I've been using www.rescuetime.com it is absolutely amazing but its not
helping... maybe even making it worse. the stats are addictive

