
Ask HN: How to deal with internet addiction? - danr4
I find it hard to keep off from mindlessly browsing the web because I&#x27;m so dependent on it as a web developer.<p>It&#x27;s become second nature to Ctrl+T and &#x27;fa&#x27; for facebook, &#x27;news&#x27; for HackerNews, &#x27;red&#x27; for reddit, etc. that I barely notice I&#x27;m doing it.<p>I also regularly stay up another hour instead of going to sleep, &quot;to catch up&quot; on things that really don&#x27;t matter or I can view tomorrow.
======
awb
Environment plays a huge and under appreciated role in addiction. Try changing
up your physical space: go to a coffee shop, a friend's house, the library,
etc. and just observe if the same desires arise.

Also, it might help to know that your body is craving the immediate dopamine
rush it gets from Facebook or news. The trick is to find something more
rewarding and that usually comes from starting as small as possible. Try doing
1 pushup, reading 1 page of a book, taking a 5 min walk, etc. Sometimes these
little pattern disruptions can be the spark that lights the fire.

It's not easy to change our behavior, but it is possible if you want to and it
sounds like you do.

Here are some resources I found useful:

Wait But Why - [https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrasti...](https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrastinate.html)

(visuals / cartoons)

Stoic Philosophy -
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=A0XxceO4qX0](https://youtube.com/watch?v=A0XxceO4qX0)

(step by step process)

~~~
rando444
Speaking of environment.. in this case, computing environment should be
considered as well.

If you're mindlessly switching to websites to browse them, it could be best to
just block them on your work computer. If you really want to catch up with the
news, use your phone or a different computer.

Separating the environments will help you keep your focus where you want it to
be.

~~~
jolmg
It might be worth mentioning that unblocking the sites should be setup to be
difficult or bothersome. It probably wont help much if you just need to hit a
shortcut key to unblock them or even just a command you can pull from history.

An idea to make it more difficult might be to setup a firewall on a separate
device (that's linking your computer and your uplink) and maybe setup
authentication to that device to require a yubikey or even just a flash drive
with an key inside. That way you must do the physical act of pulling out that
key if you want to unblock those sites.

Wherever you put that key, try to forbid yourself from reaching for it.

------
hairofadog
I employ various hacks:

\- I permanently deleted my Facebook account

\- I block certain sites in /etc/hosts. My /etc/hosts file also blocks several
hundred Facebook tracking urls, and I scatter the “tempting” sites randomly
throughout these so that unblocking them requires more than muscle memory

\- I change the passwords on the tempting sites to random strings but don't
save them so the only way in is to do a password reset

\- I use content blockers

\- I excoriate myself in a journal entry each day (this hasn't worked yet, but
I keep on doing it)

These things sorta slightly work in that they slow me down for a second and
give me a chance to consider whether I really want to visit [website].
However, my lizard brain tends to adapt pretty quickly, and disabling the
blocks gets incorporated into muscle memory as well.

So I think my solution will have to involve zen-like self-discipline as
opposed to hacks. I keep telling myself I want to give it all up for good, to
become a person who makes things instead of a person who consumes things, who
reads books instead of surfing the internet. My solution will have to be
simply deciding to change.

~~~
osrec
Would you mind sharing the list of sites you block? It would probably be a
good starting point for others wanting to do something similar. Thanks!

~~~
hairofadog
Ok, here it is:
[https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/blob/master/corporatio...](https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/blob/master/corporations/facebook/all)

That's not me, but it's the list I use.

------
mbrock
Try going on a "trip" away from the internet, while staying at home. I mean
turning it off for a while, and making a little kind of ceremony about it.
It's almost like meditation.

In fact I think temporary internet deprivation is a decent way to describe
meditation to most people in this era. But it's not just a deprivation because
you'll probably find it quite interesting.

Maybe you'll feel a bit restless, but then remember you're on a trip, it's
like you're camping, you need to amuse yourself. Maybe have a bath. Tidy a
bit. Maybe even clean your downloads folder. Light a candle. Sit on the floor
for a while. See what happens.

Offline life is a pretty good place to enjoy some coziness. The internet
usually isn't very cozy. And coziness is nice. It's not like without internet
you'll be actually _suffering_. It's kinda nice.

And then it's "just" a matter of habits. Getting acquainted with the niceness
of offline life seems like a necessary first step to start forming any kind of
offline habit.

~~~
amelius
> The internet usually isn't very cozy.

I'm curious in what ways the internet could be made more cozy (?)

~~~
franky47
Maybe by having less of it shoved in your face in the form of endless lists of
vaguely related content engineered to keep your attention.

In a sea of pushed content, I actually find harder to find things I'm
genuinely interested in. This may have turned a generation of curious minds
into passive consumers.

For example, the paginated list on HN's home page is great: I've never needed
to move to page 2, whereas if it has been an infinite list, I'd probably spend
way too long there.

~~~
dorchadas
That's honestly one thing I love about Wikipedia. It's so easy to just keep
clicking links and going to new things.

------
anyonecancode
Seconding all the call outs about focusing on changing environment rather than
relying on will power. In general, I think people have a tendency to expect to
much on simply "willing" themselves into doing something, then feel guilty
when it doesn't work, which erodes the willpower they stared out with --
recurse down to giving up.

The specific thing I'd add to the comments already here is four things that
have worked for me. These are more about phones specifically than internet
addiction in general, but I think they help with that larger topic too:

1\. I bought a travel alarm clock. At night, I leave my phone downstairs.
Having an alarm clock means I can no longer use the excuse "I just need the
alarm function on my phone." This also helps in the morning as I literally
can't just wake up and go online.

2\. I removed Facebook from my phone. If I were on twitter, etc I'd remove
those too. Communication is better from a keyboard anyway -- I'm on social
media less frequently, and when I'm on I have an input device that actually
supports writing full thoughts and sentences.

3\. For web sites, I stay logged off on my phone. Similar to above, though
less drastic than making those sites completely inaccessible on my phone. I
still browse, say, Hacker News, but there's now often a forced wait between
reading and replying.

4\. I have a small phone (iPhone SE). It feels "cozy" (to one commentor's
point about making the internet a more cozy place) since it actually fits
nicely in my hand and pockets.

I guess I'll throw in another point too -- I experiment with different ways to
change my environment. I think that's the real trick, more so than even the
above -- I came to those through trial and error. Try changing something, and
use the results of that to inform what you try next. Recurse to improvement.
Good luck.

~~~
patrickxie
what are some detailed changes that have worked for you?

------
vlunkr
If you work in an office, try to sit somewhere that others can see your
screen(s). Knowing that my boss or co-worker will see me constantly re-opening
obviously distracting sites is a big deterrent. This works better than
blocking sites or using productivity apps personally, but others swear by
them. You just have to find what works for you.

------
lawlorino
Along similar lines does anyone have ideas for transitioning away from
consumption to production? I am coming from a similar place to the OP and
after some reflection noticed my spare time is still dominated by media
consumption (reading, podcasts etc.). Even though these are generally thought
of as being more 'worthwhile' than scrolling through HN or reddit it still
leaves me feeling pretty empty and unfulfilled.

Edit: realised I should have left some tips for others in this thread as it's
something I have been working on recently myself. Two things to add that I've
found help:

\- Making the bedroom an electronics-free zone. Bought an analog alarm clock
for waking up and leave my phone in another room to charge overnight. I also
try and read for an hour before bed to cut down on screen time.

\- Installed the app Quality Time which has the ability to limit app and phone
usage for scheduled times or when desired.

~~~
tomjen3
I think reading is on a different enough level (depending on what you read)
that it shouldn't be compared with idling on youtube. Most of the people who
have really great ideas have read thousands of books.

As for podcasts, I listen to them when I am not in a position to be creative,
e.g I am not going to write code when I am driving, or vaccuming the house, or
shopping, etc.

------
cityzen
My guess is that you're not busy enough or that you're not busy enough with
rewarding work. Believe it or not, being happy and engaged is a lot of work.
Write down a list of things you want to learn, try and/or do and just start
doing them. Take a sailing class, get your motorcycle license, learn a new
technology, build a workbench, start running. You don't have to have a hobby
but the more things you try the more likely you are to find something you
enjoy more than watching the world burn online. Building lego sets takes a
ridiculous amount of time but the tactile response I get from putting blocks
together is pretty fulfilling, more than sitting at a computer.

I am also a developer and I've found one thing that I've enjoyed recently is
revisiting old projects where the client and I disagreed on the execution and
building it out the way I wanted to. It's fun to test your assumptions and
also gives you more perspective when you build things in the future.

If you use AWS, sign up to acloud.guru for a couple of months and get an AWS
certification.

Bottom line is that change isn't easy. Just make a list, get dressed, leave
the house and go do something. Eventually you'll see wasting time online as
exactly that, wasting time.

------
DoreenMichele
Years ago, studies showed that people who worked physically hard jobs spent
many hours zoning out in front of the TV. They were too exhausted to do
anything else.

I think pointless browsing online has largely taken the place of zoning out in
front of the TV. I am bad about it when I'm sick and exhausted.

So, for starters, work on your general health so you aren't so tired all the
time. Second, find more satisfying means to meet your needs.

Because browsing twitter and the like is about like eating a single potato
chip at at time all day long as your only sustenance. You never really feel
full and you wonder why you are growing fatter. If you occasionally have the
equivalent of Christmas dinner where you are so stuffed you couldn't eat
another bite, then you can stop mindlessly eating potato chips.

(as just one example:)

Social media is frequently a substitute for a real social life. Establishing
meatier friendships may have you less invested in refreshing Twitter all day
long. (No offense intended to my twitter buddies, some of whom are delightful
and really enhance my life.)

~~~
MuffinFlavored
> So, for starters, work on your general health so you aren't so tired all the
> time.

This is tough for me. Any tips on how to bypass the contradiction that is "I
am too tired to work out, but I am tired because I don't work out?"

~~~
DoreenMichele
Start with diet and hygiene. Improve your nutritional status and get nitpicky
about cleanliness. Expect to initially have negative fallout before you start
seeing gains. Anything that helps will have some kind of side effects.

Then start walking more. Park a little farther out from the office or store.
Take one flight of stairs instead of the elevator. Get a step counter to help
you track your progress so it isn't invisible to you.

~~~
jolmg
In other words, baby steps. If the workout GP is thinking of is too much then
do something you can pull yourself to do. In time, one should feel slightly
more energized and be able to do increasingly more difficult forms of
exercise.

------
b_b
For people who use YouTube and would like to remove distractions, I use the
simple CSS script below along with the CSS styler extension Stylus to remove
distractions and stop me from jumping mindlessly from video to video.

    
    
      /* Hide the Distracting Comments */
      #comments {
        display: none;
      }
    
      /* Hide Livestream Comments */
      #chat {
        display: none;
      }
    
      /* Hide Related Videos */
      #related {
        display: none;
      }

------
thejacenxpress
Back in mid-October I needed to make a drastic change in my life. I spent a
lot of time doing the following:

    
    
      - Mindlessly browsing the internet (FB, YT, HN, Reddit)
      - Dating apps
      - Nintendo Switch online
    

My wake up call happened when a few recruiters from big companies, that I'd
love to work for, reached out to me about interviewing. It was then I realized
how undisciplined I had been. I had no chance at either of these companies
because I constantly wasted my free time instead of working on coding projects
or bettering myself. So I made a change:

    
    
      - Added the Stayfocused browser extension and limited my internet wasting time to 30 min a day on weekdays
      - Deleted all my dating apps (this by far gave me the most sense of freedom and clarity which surprised me)
      - Stopped playing Switch altogether
    

That's it! My goal was not "go to the gym", "journal", "go on walks", "read
more books"...but guess what...that's what happened! When I stopped/limited
doing all of these time wasting activities I created a new void in my life. I
suddenly had a lot more free time every day. My natural reaction was to go
waste it, but now I could not...so I started going on walks instead. I started
doing coding challenges and reading coding books on topics I knew I was weak
in. I started journaling more and went to the gym 4 times a week.

Let me tell you, it has been an absolutely AMAZING life change. I highly
recommend everyone take up this challenge for a month or two and see the
difference in your life. If you're like me you'll never want to go back! Good
luck out there!

PS. In case it helps motivate anyone, one of those companies was Google. I
passed the phone screen :). I know that may be easy for some people here but I
was completely unprepared when I was approached and I know this life change 3
months ago made the difference.

------
evolutionas
I had same problem few years ago but after installing StayFocusd[1] plugin in
chrome I solved this issue. I set allowed time per day to 40 minutes to visit
such websites as: reddit, fb, 9gag, youtube. If I need to watch video related
to work/studies I use viewpure[2] that way I only watch only that particular
video and don't lose my binge time. I also communicate with my friends a lot
using fb so I just use messenger website instead of having fb opened directly.

[1]
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankej...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji?hl=en)
[2] [http://viewpure.com/](http://viewpure.com/)

------
hellerup89
Altering a habit by means of will-force is not easy.

One simple route can be to make checking some sites more difficult, so that
you need to make an effort to log into e.g. Facebook.

For example, you can use Temporary Containers [1] so that all cookies are
deleted when you close a tab. Hence, every time you open a new tab and go to
facebook.com you will need to make the effort to log in. As a side effect,
this approach reduces tracking by third parties.

[1] [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-
con...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-containers/)

------
hirundo
>> Reloads "How to deal with internet addiction?" story repeatedly to read new
posts. <<

------
Inhibit
Instead of "what do I want to stop doing" frame it as "what would I like to be
doing".

Get more engaged in something particular. Build your own car, for example. But
that might just be me.

It's possible, that if you have free time to idle away reading, that your work
isn't occupying as much of your time as you'd like.

Shift that free time usage to something you find more personally rewarding or
that involves more in person social interaction.

It's tough. Bear in mind this is my own take and might not reflect the reality
of your situation.

------
namank
Log out. When you end up on the home page anyways, it'll be your cue to pause,
think, and then act. Decide that it is not a good idea to log in. Ctrl+tab to
your work and keep trying to make progress. Repeat above till you make some
actual progress.

Take a step back and examine why are you craving this comfort -- what in your
life is lacking that makes so uncomfortable that you want to soothe it with
internet immediately.

------
atiredturte
I found that going cold turkey never really worked for me.

What I did find worked was tracking my usage and reporting on it each week.
Most of my mindless usage happens on my phone, so I used the built-in Google
Wellbeing app.

Every week I'd write down my hours on key problem apps (reddit, facebook,
youtube) and then comment on it. Perhaps I spent more time than usual on
youtube this week, or I was able to cut things down.

Recording this metric allows for several benefits:

1\. Create correlations. For example, I found that I was weakest during
weekends when I didn't have any plans to start my day. I then fixed this by
ensuring I always had some kind of task/event first thing in the morning.

2\. Allow for non-internalised judgement. Since everything is reflected on
after the fact, you can judge your performance without beating yourself up.
The bit of perspective really helps.

3\. Allows for celebration. When you do improve, you are able to celebrate and
feel proud of your achievement. I've found this boost to be really motivating.

------
franky47
I had the same issue. Being able to recognise it's a problem is already a big
achievement, acting on it only follows naturally once you've realised how much
time you waste.

For social networks, I blocked them at the DNS level in /etc/hosts (along with
other annoyances) [1]. I've had the muscle memory to CMD+T , 'F', Enter for a
few weeks after quitting cold turkey, but seeing the "Could not connect to
host" message on the browser reminded me of why I did that.

A few months down the line, I don't regret my choice. Sure it's harder to keep
up with friends, but it's a small step in making them realise what a social
hazard those platforms are.

[1]
[https://gist.github.com/franky47/6835b4a7ca5c072e4b75efa08bc...](https://gist.github.com/franky47/6835b4a7ca5c072e4b75efa08bc40422)

~~~
lawlorino
> Being able to recognise it's a problem is already a big achievement, acting
> on it only follows naturally once you've realised how much time you waste.

I suppose this means I might have bigger problems if I recognise how much of a
waste of time it is but don't feel massively compelled to change behaviour.

------
imhoguy
Procrastination may be symptom of some deeper problem with motivation and
planning. Maybe your tasks are too chunky, boring or too much undefined?

Also to spoil a procrastiation pattern a bit I use Leechblock NG on FF. Sure
you can unlock pages pretty easily but that one obstacle makes you remind your
resolution.

------
hannob
I occasionally temporarily redirect certain sites (twitter, HN, reddit) to
127.0.0.1 via /etc/hosts.

This is helpful, though occasionally it creates conflicts when there's a mixup
between "lazy pages" and things I want to get done (e.g. sometimes twitter DMs
are the way I reach people).

~~~
yzb
Just put the domains in your ublock origin list. That way, if you visit those
pages, you will be displayed a page that says that the site was blocked but
you have a button to temporarily override the block.

------
dnhz
I share the same problem. I use SelfControl on MacOS to block all the
distracting sites. I've configured my computer at work to start SelfControl on
a schedule (9:00-18:00) so I have no choice over the block.

Still though, there are a lot of distracting ideas that come up as I work:
what should I do for dinner? What's my routine for the gym tonight? What's the
weather? How's the stock market today? I've started using a pomodoro app to
make me psychologically less inclined to paying attention to distracting ideas
as I work. Admittedly, depending on the difficulty of the task, it works more
or less.

Part of the problem comes from not being completely motivated about my work.
It's an issue that is hard to address, so I try to cope by increasing
discipline.

------
aasasd
You'll quit Reddit when you begin getting annoyed with how predictable and
repetitive it is.

I'm not kidding. People who got addicted to World of Warcraft and then quit
it, recommend migrating to another server. It gets boring to grind again (or
whatever happens, I'm not a player).

------
ncfausti
I have the same issue. I’ve installed a browser extension that allows me to
set redirects for any url. I’ve setup Facebook to go to khanacademy.org (I’m
trying to learn more about linear algebra/calc) and reddit to go to
wikiroulette.co

So far it’s been working to stop my sub-awareness level typing of these URLs
and wasting time.

Another approach would be to look into mindfulness so that you become more
aware of your actions/habits.

As an aside, if interested in the topic of awareness/attention, I was just
listening to a great podcast that’s sort of related to your question:

[https://smartdrugsmarts.com/episodes/episode-123-consciousne...](https://smartdrugsmarts.com/episodes/episode-123-consciousness-
graziano/)

------
Tade0
Like a number of others already said: there's probably some underlying problem
and addiction is a symptom of it.

To illustrate my point: two years ago my phone died so I figured it would be a
good opportunity to wean myself off it(especially given that I couldn't afford
a replacement at the time). I spent 9 months without a smartphone only to
discover that pretty much all the symptoms of addiction came back once I
finally bought one.

In my case the problem was overwork combined with the inability to gather any
savings and a somewhat uninspiring work environment.

I started budgeting and switched jobs, which is helping, but there's a long
way ahead of me.

Which brings me to another point: it's usually a long process that requires
daily work.

------
spython
Like any addiction it might be a signal of deeper underlying problems - lack
of meaning in your work, lack of feeling that it matters, general
dissatisfaction with how your life is going.

One way to approach it could be a slow morning, as discussed on hn a few weeks
ago -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18857090](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18857090)
\- take your time to arrive in the day, to remember what is important to you,
and then do the most important things. If browsing the web is important to
you, reserve a certain amount of time to do just that and stop once the time
is up.

------
thoughtstheseus
I find a simple interim/transition trick is to say: If I do x,y,z tasks then I
can do web browsing (any habit). Just make those other tasks things you want
to work on and the web stuff a reward for working on it.

~~~
wool_gather
Agreed! I often find this kind of self-bargaining helpful, but I would suggest
that you start _really small_ with the thing you agree to do. Otherwise it
becomes just another set of tasks to avoid/procrastinate over.

I have used the Pomodoro technique on and off over the years, and I find it to
be really useful for exactly what you suggested. I promise I will do _just
one_ Pomodoro, twenty minutes' of work, and then I can go do whatever. Twenty
minutes is short enough to not trigger avoidance or distraction, but it's also
long enough to really get rolling. Almost without exception, at the end of the
twenty, I don't want to stop. I keep going and end up with a full set of four
Pomodoros completed, and desire and energy to continue beyond that (if other
responsibilities allow).

------
curtis
It's dumb, but in the past when I felt I was wasting too much time on the
internet, I added some entries like this to my /etc/hosts file:

    
    
      127.0.0.1	reddit.com
      127.0.0.1	www.reddit.com
      127.0.0.1	m.reddit.com
      127.0.0.1	old.reddit.com
    

This is such a minor impediment, but I found in practice that it greatly
reduced the time I was just fooling around websurfing. I don't think I ever
disabled Hacker News, but I've rarely been able to blow multiple hours here,
either.

------
rb808
Lol you shouldn't ask us. I work with really productive developers who have
never heard of hacker news or even reddit. You should ask people like that. :)

------
thisisit
One of the aha moments I had was - Thinking of good productive habits as light
and unproductive habits as darkness. While you can dim the lights by doing
good habits more and more but you cannot dim the dark by doing bad habits less
and less.

So, instead of finding ways to "lessen" darkness, I tried to increase light by
adding more productive habits.

For adding good habits, I use the BJ Fogg's Tiny Habits method. And it has
helped so far.

------
m-appleton
Cold Turkey app has been a huge game changer for me on this front -
[https://getcoldturkey.com/](https://getcoldturkey.com/)

Have Reddit and Twitter perpetually blocked for the next 6 months. Hacker news
only accessible on weekends.

It’s well worth getting the pro version for scheduled blocking as well. Plus
it’s indie software so you get to support a the fantastic developer who built
this!

------
WiseWeasel
Never log into any of your personal accounts on your work machine.

If your work and personal computers are one and the same, create a different
user account for work.

------
kirarpit
I used to have same problem and I didn't even realize how often I was doing
Ctrl+T and 'fa' until I redirected Facebook url in /etc/hosts to a local page
which kept the count of number of visits to that page. It's like Reinforcement
learning, everytime you hit the fb url, you are instead being shown "not
found" and sooner you start thinking that fb is bad.

------
hate
Being raised in a virtual environment taught me that repetition is safe. Most
people get a sense of comfort from browsing their favorite sites on a daily
basis, which is completely normal. As long as it's not destroying your social
life you're fine. You can always walk away or find another hobby such as
reading physical books.

------
Mangalor
I remove bookmarks, and obfuscate where things are on my phone to keep me from
mindlessly opening _another thing_.

------
stabbles
What worked for me: find things to do where you can't be on your phone /
laptop, such as running (track your progress with a sports watch and get
addicted to something worthwhile). Or find a job in Finland where it's
mandatory to have sauna's.

~~~
ryanlol
I've yet to have a laptop/phone die in the sauna, sometimes they turn
off/complain about the heat but that's about it.

------
nikivi
I block websites I deem to be a waste of time during my automated Pomodoro
sessions with Focus app. Works beautifully for me.

[https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/focusing](https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/focusing)

------
nuc
Since last week, I started leaving my macbook at the office. That made me to
spent more time to other hobbies, and except a couple of times where I felt I
really needed it (import photos from the camera, etc), the week was quite fine
without it.

------
albertgoeswoof
Like all addictions you should look at the underlying causes for your
behaviour. Are you procrastinating? Anxious? Compensating for something else?

------
bsaul
i’ve noticed that waiting after i’ve taken my breakfast before i read news on
my ipad makes a huge difference for the rest of the day.

But i started by doing a full 48h 100% offline. It made ma realize how much
time i lost every day doing nothing online.all of the sudden i had so much
time i had to fill that i started doing new things ( drawing, discussing
things with people, etc)

------
nzjrs
Go on holiday to a place with no internet or phone coverage. You will return
in 2 weeks and notice that your absence didn't matter

------
samblr
Disabling images helps a great deal while concuming content over internet.
Look for under setting on how to disable.

------
Antoninus
Block sites, pursue a hobby/craft that takes you away from the screen.

------
ivankirigin
How many folks on this thread are procrastinating right now?

I know I am, and it's sad.

------
saluki
Have you looked in to a parental filter? - @DHH starup school talk

You actually should try redirecting sites you waste time on to something
productive.

[https://sixtymeters.com/hack-your-productivity-by-editing-
yo...](https://sixtymeters.com/hack-your-productivity-by-editing-your-hosts-
file/)

That gives you details on redirecting sites to google, but I would redirect
your time wasting sites to trello or your to do list.

------
lazyant
one "electronics-free" day a week

------
omarforgotpwd
You could start by getting out of this thread

------
TheLegend1402
I've written an in-depth article about this:

[https://findfocus.net/Overcome-internet-
addiction/](https://findfocus.net/Overcome-internet-addiction/)

Reduce proximity and exposure by design I discovered that overcoming my
smartphone addiction was "relatively easy" while it was way more difficult to
deal with internet addiction on my computer.

Especially when I wanted to get work done and engage in deep work habits.

For most people, the computer is still the place where we can work most
efficiently.

The big advantage of using a computer to access the internet is that it's LESS
convenient and therefore easier to not use the internet too much.

The whole approach is based on reducing proximity and expose to the internet
and our smartphones.

This will remove most of the triggers that start the addictive hooked model.
It will also make it much more difficult to engage in the 2nd step of the
model and perform the action tech companies want us to take.

By designing an environment that removes the trigger or and makes making the
action much more difficult, I was able to overcome my internet addiction.

If you follow this you will be able to do the same.

The secret ingredient I used is something I stumbled upon in Kelly McGonigal's
book "The Willpower Instinct" and it's called Delay Discounting.

Delay Discounting Delay discounting is a mind trick recommend by behavioral
scientists.

Researchers found out that the longer you have to wait for a reward (e.g.
checking your favorite social media site or playing a game online) the less it
is worth to you.

The reason is that your brain chooses immediate gratification at the cost of
future rewards because immediate rewards trigger the older, more primitive
reward system and its dopamine-induced desire in the brain.

To make this work and to delay gratification, the prefrontal cortex has to be
forced to cool off the promise of the reward.

The reason is that even small delays can dramatically lower the perceived
value of any temptation.

In practice that means your urge to visit Facebook, Reddit, Youtube etc. or
playing a game has only a narrow window of opportunity to overwhelm your
brain.

As soon as there is any distance between you and the temptation, the rational
part of your brain takes over. For example, even putting your phone on
airplane mode and putting it in the drawer will work.

For your smartphone: 1\. Delete every app that is potentially addictive from
your phone.

2.Download the app Appdetox and add times for apps that you have to use less
often but cannot delete completely.

3\. Download the app Applock for android to block the play store and your
internet browser

For your computer: The Approach That Worked For Me Using the FindFocus
([https://findfocus.net](https://findfocus.net))

1.Block distracting websites throughout the day. 2.White-list all the websites
that you need to work and force myself to unlock the Internet (for max. 15min
per session) if I want to visit a site that’s not needed to be productive. 3\.
Block email during the day, while still being allowed to send email without
seeing the inbox. Works like magic for me!

I can access almost any website (except proven distractions & email) all the
time but for a maximum of 15min at a time.

