I'm struggling with it. I have a website blocker on my Mac, but then I just turn it off eventually and go back to old habits, if I block hacker news, reddit etc, then I end up just having random thoughts and googling those and finding other sites to read through and of course sometimes reddit can have the answer for the thing i needed to google, so that can be annoying.
I changed to a white list to try and solve this problem, but then I just keep finding little bits of websites i need access to, to do what I want, the minute I disable something or find a solution, I just get around it somehow or need to turn it off and end up at square one.
I feel I tap into the " what is your life philosophy? what do you believe in? do the communities you browse online reflect this in some way? did you learn about these from people online?" this quite a lot.
The internet for me, is not about watching cute cat videos, but trying to learn more about life, philosophy, how to be a better human, productivity porn etc, maybe it's a big insecurity of mine, but I think about this stuff all the time and the internet is a unending resource for all this stuff, I figure that a great resource in solving and thinking about all these things, must be other people and there own thoughts and experiences that I can learn from and then integrate with my own thinking and the internet gives me unending access to that, or at least in theory it does.
So i'm reading through Hacking News, Reddit, blogs, watching youtube videos, podcasts etc, hoping to find those things and then I end up with a bunch of notes and documents etc, but it all kinda becomes overwhelming anyway, either from the content I am currently consuming or even all the thoughts and ideas I wrote down previous because I thought they where somehow useful.
I honestly don't know what to do about this anymore. I'm trying to figure out a system for living more simply and internet consumption is part of it, but also there is the bigger issue that i mentioned which I think is the primary driver of that internet consumption.
I think most people struggle with this if they recognize this as a problem. I use https://freedom.to to set up times of day when I can access social media. And yes, sometimes I shut this down when I want to cheat.
For me the best life hack to avoid wasting even more time is to rely on my Apple Watch to get phone calls and text messages, and leave my iPhone at home. This is sort of like using an old flip-phone because it takes accessing social media off the table.
That's good that you found something that works for you.
My phone isn't actually the big distraction point for me, I don't have social media apps and barely use it, it's more my iMac and sometimes my iPad too.
I guess I need to find something that works for me, i'm yet to figure that out yet though.
People have had this problem figured out for a very long time and I guess there’s just been too much else going on on the internet so it’s been lost.
You’re the only really technical person in the house, you’re the only one who can block you from doing things you know are bad for you, so you set up the software to do it, and then you have your spouse or a really good friend change the password. Now you can’t get back in without talking to them first.
> trying to learn more about life, philosophy, how to be a better human, productivity porn etc
IMO The internet is not usually a good way to learn this stuff. These are big life concepts that require deep focus and patience. The internet rewards the opposite of that.
The Big Concepts require both study and application. If you’re mostly spending time in the study phase, it’s not working.
I'm starting to just give up on it to be honest and consider more just trying to avoid this kind of information and figure out what works for me myself, my ultimate thought is to replace information consumption of this kinda thing with just more deep reflection and a bigger trial and error process.
I mean who are the people producing this content that I think will help me anyway? There just people, so I feel like I can figure it out myself maybe.
Even when cleaning i'm listening to these kinda podcasts etc, i don't know how much I get from it, I think I almost get more value from not listening to anything, as it allows my own thoughts to process.
I don't know. I feel kinda stuck with it all and this generally leads to two things, 1) Trying to find / consume more information 2) Overthinking that leads me to feeling more stuck and back to 1, i'm not sure quite what to do / where to turn, but maybe that is the issue, the whole 'where to turn' thought, is that same idea, wanting to figure out what information source will somehow make things different.
Maybe the root cause is that your desire to "be better" or attain a goal is too strong. It sounds like you're aware of some of this already.
I know that for me, I once tried to optimizing just about everything in my life. That led me to try to learn how to do everything better and better. At one point I realized that I was overthinking and optimizing everything, even which path I would take to walk to the bus to save some time. The stress of attaining perfection just got to be too much, so I just worked on letting go of trying to improve everything.
So, maybe work on just being okay with things how they are and not striving too much to be even better. A lot of this requires being aware of your thoughts and moods so you can change in the moment. I've found meditation helps a lot there.
It’s hard to name good sources when we’re talking in generalities. But whatever topic your interested in, there are likely many experts on the subject that have published books or other long form content. That’s a great starting point, then I think you need to figure out what works for you through experience and trial and error
I use SelfControl App for Mac which adds the sites to your host file for a certain amount of hours. I find it to be very helpful now. Its also annoying to override it so while I could easily do it, usually it makes me delay until the "craving" passes.
Yeah, it's a good app that I have used in the past, the issue being I don't know how long I need to block everything for and I might need some of those websites randomly when I end up needing some info and the answer is on reddit etc.
Also lack of scheduling, so every time I have to click to start, I often lose so much time in the morning just browsing before I get to work etc.
I changed to a white list to try and solve this problem, but then I just keep finding little bits of websites i need access to, to do what I want, the minute I disable something or find a solution, I just get around it somehow or need to turn it off and end up at square one.
I feel I tap into the " what is your life philosophy? what do you believe in? do the communities you browse online reflect this in some way? did you learn about these from people online?" this quite a lot.
The internet for me, is not about watching cute cat videos, but trying to learn more about life, philosophy, how to be a better human, productivity porn etc, maybe it's a big insecurity of mine, but I think about this stuff all the time and the internet is a unending resource for all this stuff, I figure that a great resource in solving and thinking about all these things, must be other people and there own thoughts and experiences that I can learn from and then integrate with my own thinking and the internet gives me unending access to that, or at least in theory it does.
So i'm reading through Hacking News, Reddit, blogs, watching youtube videos, podcasts etc, hoping to find those things and then I end up with a bunch of notes and documents etc, but it all kinda becomes overwhelming anyway, either from the content I am currently consuming or even all the thoughts and ideas I wrote down previous because I thought they where somehow useful.
I honestly don't know what to do about this anymore. I'm trying to figure out a system for living more simply and internet consumption is part of it, but also there is the bigger issue that i mentioned which I think is the primary driver of that internet consumption.