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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.

by awb 8y ago

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-procrastinate.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrasti... (visuals / cartoons) Stoic Philosophy - https://youtube.com/watch?v=A0XxceO4qX0 https://youtube.com/watch?v=A0XxceO4qX0 (step by step process)

rando444 8y ago
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 8y ago
  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.
- afarrell 8y ago
  Some tools for doing this which you can install are SelfControl.app, Freedom.app, Forest, and ColdTurkey. I use SelfControl and it is life-changing.

by awb 8y ago

rando444 8y ago

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 8y ago
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.
afarrell 8y ago
Some tools for doing this which you can install are SelfControl.app, Freedom.app, Forest, and ColdTurkey. I use SelfControl and it is life-changing.