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I find it very hard to not look at my phone every 5 min (to check HN, emails, or anything). I wish I didn't, and I feel quite like the author (at the beginning

I find it very hard to not look at my phone every 5 min (to check HN, emails, or anything). I wish I didn't, and I feel quite like the author (at the beginning of its article): lack of concentration, mentally tired.. Do people have any advice to help ?

amelius 6y ago
A picture of your mother-in-law on your home screen?
Strom 6y ago
Replacing an addiction with a void won't work. So instead of focusing on "how do I stop doing this?" focus on finding a different activity. If it's something you're truly interested in, then you'll spend your time doing that and you won't have time or a desire to check your phone. In other words, you're only checking your phone because that is more interesting than whatever else you were doing at that moment. So the key is to replace that boring activity with a more interesting one.
- limomium 6y ago
  I disagree - that just leads to learning to distract oneself. The most effective method in my experience is to do nothing instead of the thing you want to stop doing. Literally, stop the thing you're doing, do not transition into doing anything else, and then do nothing. For a good while. Give it an hour or two. This is based on the theory that the REASON you keep checking your phone, HN, etc. is that you are compulsively anxious about "missing out" on information, so your brain seeks it at every opportunity, and the Internet and its services have an unending supply. The antidote is to PROVE to yourself that the compulsion is illusory, and nothing bad happens if you resist it. Over time, you can extend the time between these checks longer and longer, and begin to notice that it's OK to miss even MOST online content, really only occasionally and with INTENT stop to consume the stuff you ACTUALLY care about. Unfriend Facebook contacts that have nothing real to say. Unsubscribe from everything that doesn't truly interest you. Set your phone on 'Do Not Disturb' outside business hours. YOU decide what content and when you want to consume. Never browse feeds nor recommendation engines. They are intentionally tuned to be as addictive as possible, to keep you hooked, to serve you more ads.
  - otabdeveloper4 6y ago
    One of these days we (the human race) will internalize the truth that information exists as a physical thing and is the third complement to matter and energy. The idea that you shouldn't be binging on low-quality food 24/7 is a no-brainer to us. One day we'll figure out that hygiene and nutrition rules apply to information too.
nullc 6y ago
The key to breaking the cycle is stopping the start of it. It's often easier to create bright line zones of complete abstinence than it is to regulate usage to 'reasonable' amounts. The post suggested going on walks without the phone. Setup your charging location for the phone outside of your bedroom and have a no phone in the bedroom rule. No phone at the dinner table rule. A no phone in <wherever the phone is usually leading to unwanted outcomes> rule. If you actually have to allow the phone to interrupt you (do you _really_?) designate a space where you'll take those interruptions, rather than allowing the phone usage to spill into spaces where you've designated the phone off limits. Take activities that you might otherwise do on the phone but could do on a regular computer and stop doing them on the phone. At least you can't be doing them all the time. (e.g. I've never logged in to HN or Reddit from a phone, and it's been >10 years since I've done email on a mobile device...).
dpenguin 6y ago
Just keep it in a different room.
paulcole 6y ago
Get rid of your phone. I have a non-smart flip-style phone and Google Voice on my iPad for texting. Admittedly I’ve never had a smartphone so I don’t know what I’m missing but I get by just fine.
alexashka 6y ago
Look at phone checking as a cause, instead of a symptom. Your life other than your phone encourages checking it. Long commute to work? Plenty of situations you'd rather not be in? Limited freedom to choose how you spend your time? Yes? Then being in your phone is a coping mechanism. The solution is, there is no simple solution - you need to have financial freedom to not be forced into situations you'd rather not be in. Other than that, if you're under 30, then a phone is simply a free tool for gathering new experiences and it's perfectly normal to check it every 5 minutes - you're supposed to be curious. It'll work itself out - sooner or later checking instagram and facebook simply gets old. Twitter opinions get repetitive and boring. Even HackerNews becomes predictable and boring. It's like anything else - sooner or later you figure out what works for you and you focus more on that, then the things that weren't serving you will largely fall away on their own, but it may take a decade or two to get there. Just don't have children until you're sure, everything else you can figure out isn't working for you and let it go :)
- cryptica 6y ago
  >> Look at phone checking as a cause, instead of a symptom. So true. It's interesting that the most upvoted comments on HN are those which treat this as a cause. "Leave your phone in another room", "Turn it off", "Throw it away"... These ideas are themselves the product of the global lobotomy. They are characterized by an inability to see that things are much more complex than they appear on the surface. Of course, superficial ideas are more likely to be popular. This is because the vast majority of people are system 1 'instinctive' thinkers. The idea that the underlying cause might be "people have insufficient control over their own lives" is not on the globalist agenda. This argument is far too sophisticated and abstract for most people to grasp. People will not even want to acknowledge it to themselves. IMO, it's precisely the lack of control over our lives (at the hands of the education system, governments and corporations) which is forcing us to accept a passive consumer role. But very few people really want to be a consumer, they just don't see an alternative.
throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
My phone is and always has been a little dumbphone and can't do those distractions. Question: do you really need those features that distract you?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
asiachick 6y ago
Turn off all non-important notifications. Turn off facebook (leave on Messenger), twitter (maybe can be configured so only DMs notify) and anything else. Turn off the badges too so there is no nagging icon telling you there is new stuff to check.
- korijn 6y ago
  I also hit unsubscribe in every single email I can.
eebynight 6y ago
I swapped my phone to grayscale among other things people recommended. The colors are part of the reward system so turning them off makes your phone pretty bland and over time less rewarding. This is not an immediate fix.
c22 6y ago
I got a European phone that didn't support any of my carrier's 4g bands. I can use it do stuff on 2g or 3g if I have to, but it's so painful to use I don't end up reaching for it unless I really need it.
lordnacho 6y ago
I have a book to read. I'm not always reading it, but often enough it is a better distraction to read a long form book on my phone or laptop than yet another FB post.
woadwarrior01 6y ago
Here’s what works for me. I don’t have any social media apps on my phone. On my laptop, I use the LeechBlock NG Firefox extension to block social media (including HN) from 9:00-18:00 on weekdays, furthermore outside this window, I’ve set it up to not let me browse these sites for more than an hour a day. This restriction does not apply on Saturdays. I work 6 days a week (solo startup founder), and follow a regimen of a digital sabbath on Sundays. Which essentially means, not using any electronics (I do take an occasional phone call from a friend, but nothing more). I spend the day with my family playing board games, picnics at local parks and reading paper books.
omreaderhn 6y ago
I have found from my own experience that you need to shut your phone off and keep it off. It helps to keep it in a different room, especially at night before you go to sleep. We're working on a service that allows you to do this while still being able to read the blogs and newsletters you like. I built this specifically to deal with this problem: https://omreader.co https://omreader.co We're still in beta so it's free to use. I would love the feedback from any HN reader. You can email me at the email in my bio if you have any questions or feedback.
- roveo 6y ago
  This looks like the service I've been looking for for a while. Thank you, signed up.
cryptica 6y ago
Just find something else to do that doesn't involve consuming other people's thoughts, ideas and feedback. Come up with your own thoughts and ideas. Stop being a consumer, start being a producer. Do it for yourself because probably no one else will agree with your ideas, but that's OK. You can keep training yourself to express your ideas better.
davedx 6y ago
I recently disabled Twitter so I could really take a break from it. After a month or so I reactivated my account but didn't bother to sign in again on my phone, so now I check it once or twice a day in my desktop browser. I swear it's made a huge difference to my phone habits. Still work to do though, as I've partially replaced that habit with frequently checking news websites. I think the advice in the blog post is great -- go for a long walk without your phone. Do this once a day if possible. Start to gently break the habit.
basejumping 6y ago
I don't know if this works for you, but since a month I started taking a 1h walk every evening, after my kids go to sleep. I'm in my 30s, walking for me was something older people do. I also run every other day. But I find it so relaxing, it gives me 1h of reflection, burns a few hundred calories, and in that time I would have probably sat at the computer anyway. I think this is one of the good habits one can pick up, and in your case I think you need to pick up some good habits. Focusing on how to break your phone addiction could be hard since it's very specific, so maybe changing some fundamental things that you do will shake off this behaviour.
omginternets 6y ago
“Out of sight, out of mind” Seriously. Think about it this way: if you’re going on a diet, the first thing to do is make sure you don’t have cookies in the house. If you do, you’ll eat cookies. In much the same way, something as small as leaving your phone in another room will prevent you from reaching for your phone out of habit. Start with that.
sparkie 6y ago
Install GoodTime on your phone and have your work open on your computer. The computer should be free of social media and news feeds. Clear them from your browser history. GoodTime uses the Pomodoro technique to have you concentrate on a task for 25 minutes, then take a 5 minute break. Your 5 minute break could be you checking your email or whatever else, but also take break from sitting which can cause other health issues. When the 5 minutes are up, back to work. Stop making excuses to yourself. Only 25 minutes till you can check your feeds again. I'd also suggest using the Loop Habit Tracker app to keep track of habits you're trying to develop over a longer period. If you can perform a task continuously for 30 days, you shouldn't need to be reminded anymore to do it, it becomes a habit. This app lets you drop reminders as widgets onto your launcher which should draw your attention before your social media does. (Take your social media apps off the launcher home screen so there's an extra step you need to go through to access them). Also, on the computer, install LeechBlock or other similar addon and blacklist all of your social media and other sites which cause you to procrastinate.

amelius 6y ago

A picture of your mother-in-law on your home screen?

Strom 6y ago

Replacing an addiction with a void won't work. So instead of focusing on "how do I stop doing this?" focus on finding a different activity. If it's something you're truly interested in, then you'll spend your time doing that and you won't have time or a desire to check your phone. In other words, you're only checking your phone because that is more interesting than whatever else you were doing at that moment. So the key is to replace that boring activity with a more interesting one.

limomium 6y ago
I disagree - that just leads to learning to distract oneself. The most effective method in my experience is to do nothing instead of the thing you want to stop doing. Literally, stop the thing you're doing, do not transition into doing anything else, and then do nothing. For a good while. Give it an hour or two. This is based on the theory that the REASON you keep checking your phone, HN, etc. is that you are compulsively anxious about "missing out" on information, so your brain seeks it at every opportunity, and the Internet and its services have an unending supply. The antidote is to PROVE to yourself that the compulsion is illusory, and nothing bad happens if you resist it. Over time, you can extend the time between these checks longer and longer, and begin to notice that it's OK to miss even MOST online content, really only occasionally and with INTENT stop to consume the stuff you ACTUALLY care about. Unfriend Facebook contacts that have nothing real to say. Unsubscribe from everything that doesn't truly interest you. Set your phone on 'Do Not Disturb' outside business hours. YOU decide what content and when you want to consume. Never browse feeds nor recommendation engines. They are intentionally tuned to be as addictive as possible, to keep you hooked, to serve you more ads.
- otabdeveloper4 6y ago
  One of these days we (the human race) will internalize the truth that information exists as a physical thing and is the third complement to matter and energy. The idea that you shouldn't be binging on low-quality food 24/7 is a no-brainer to us. One day we'll figure out that hygiene and nutrition rules apply to information too.

nullc 6y ago

The key to breaking the cycle is stopping the start of it. It's often easier to create bright line zones of complete abstinence than it is to regulate usage to 'reasonable' amounts. The post suggested going on walks without the phone. Setup your charging location for the phone outside of your bedroom and have a no phone in the bedroom rule. No phone at the dinner table rule. A no phone in <wherever the phone is usually leading to unwanted outcomes> rule. If you actually have to allow the phone to interrupt you (do you _really_?) designate a space where you'll take those interruptions, rather than allowing the phone usage to spill into spaces where you've designated the phone off limits. Take activities that you might otherwise do on the phone but could do on a regular computer and stop doing them on the phone. At least you can't be doing them all the time. (e.g. I've never logged in to HN or Reddit from a phone, and it's been >10 years since I've done email on a mobile device...).

dpenguin 6y ago

Just keep it in a different room.

paulcole 6y ago

Get rid of your phone. I have a non-smart flip-style phone and Google Voice on my iPad for texting. Admittedly I’ve never had a smartphone so I don’t know what I’m missing but I get by just fine.

alexashka 6y ago

Look at phone checking as a cause, instead of a symptom. Your life other than your phone encourages checking it. Long commute to work? Plenty of situations you'd rather not be in? Limited freedom to choose how you spend your time? Yes? Then being in your phone is a coping mechanism. The solution is, there is no simple solution - you need to have financial freedom to not be forced into situations you'd rather not be in. Other than that, if you're under 30, then a phone is simply a free tool for gathering new experiences and it's perfectly normal to check it every 5 minutes - you're supposed to be curious. It'll work itself out - sooner or later checking instagram and facebook simply gets old. Twitter opinions get repetitive and boring. Even HackerNews becomes predictable and boring. It's like anything else - sooner or later you figure out what works for you and you focus more on that, then the things that weren't serving you will largely fall away on their own, but it may take a decade or two to get there. Just don't have children until you're sure, everything else you can figure out isn't working for you and let it go :)

cryptica 6y ago
>> Look at phone checking as a cause, instead of a symptom. So true. It's interesting that the most upvoted comments on HN are those which treat this as a cause. "Leave your phone in another room", "Turn it off", "Throw it away"... These ideas are themselves the product of the global lobotomy. They are characterized by an inability to see that things are much more complex than they appear on the surface. Of course, superficial ideas are more likely to be popular. This is because the vast majority of people are system 1 'instinctive' thinkers. The idea that the underlying cause might be "people have insufficient control over their own lives" is not on the globalist agenda. This argument is far too sophisticated and abstract for most people to grasp. People will not even want to acknowledge it to themselves. IMO, it's precisely the lack of control over our lives (at the hands of the education system, governments and corporations) which is forcing us to accept a passive consumer role. But very few people really want to be a consumer, they just don't see an alternative.

throwaway_pdp09 6y ago

My phone is and always has been a little dumbphone and can't do those distractions. Question: do you really need those features that distract you?

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

asiachick 6y ago

Turn off all non-important notifications. Turn off facebook (leave on Messenger), twitter (maybe can be configured so only DMs notify) and anything else. Turn off the badges too so there is no nagging icon telling you there is new stuff to check.

korijn 6y ago
I also hit unsubscribe in every single email I can.

eebynight 6y ago

I swapped my phone to grayscale among other things people recommended. The colors are part of the reward system so turning them off makes your phone pretty bland and over time less rewarding. This is not an immediate fix.

c22 6y ago

I got a European phone that didn't support any of my carrier's 4g bands. I can use it do stuff on 2g or 3g if I have to, but it's so painful to use I don't end up reaching for it unless I really need it.

lordnacho 6y ago

I have a book to read. I'm not always reading it, but often enough it is a better distraction to read a long form book on my phone or laptop than yet another FB post.

woadwarrior01 6y ago

Here’s what works for me. I don’t have any social media apps on my phone. On my laptop, I use the LeechBlock NG Firefox extension to block social media (including HN) from 9:00-18:00 on weekdays, furthermore outside this window, I’ve set it up to not let me browse these sites for more than an hour a day. This restriction does not apply on Saturdays. I work 6 days a week (solo startup founder), and follow a regimen of a digital sabbath on Sundays. Which essentially means, not using any electronics (I do take an occasional phone call from a friend, but nothing more). I spend the day with my family playing board games, picnics at local parks and reading paper books.

omreaderhn 6y ago

I have found from my own experience that you need to shut your phone off and keep it off. It helps to keep it in a different room, especially at night before you go to sleep. We're working on a service that allows you to do this while still being able to read the blogs and newsletters you like. I built this specifically to deal with this problem: https://omreader.co https://omreader.co We're still in beta so it's free to use. I would love the feedback from any HN reader. You can email me at the email in my bio if you have any questions or feedback.

roveo 6y ago
This looks like the service I've been looking for for a while. Thank you, signed up.

cryptica 6y ago

Just find something else to do that doesn't involve consuming other people's thoughts, ideas and feedback. Come up with your own thoughts and ideas. Stop being a consumer, start being a producer. Do it for yourself because probably no one else will agree with your ideas, but that's OK. You can keep training yourself to express your ideas better.

davedx 6y ago

I recently disabled Twitter so I could really take a break from it. After a month or so I reactivated my account but didn't bother to sign in again on my phone, so now I check it once or twice a day in my desktop browser. I swear it's made a huge difference to my phone habits. Still work to do though, as I've partially replaced that habit with frequently checking news websites. I think the advice in the blog post is great -- go for a long walk without your phone. Do this once a day if possible. Start to gently break the habit.

basejumping 6y ago

I don't know if this works for you, but since a month I started taking a 1h walk every evening, after my kids go to sleep. I'm in my 30s, walking for me was something older people do. I also run every other day. But I find it so relaxing, it gives me 1h of reflection, burns a few hundred calories, and in that time I would have probably sat at the computer anyway. I think this is one of the good habits one can pick up, and in your case I think you need to pick up some good habits. Focusing on how to break your phone addiction could be hard since it's very specific, so maybe changing some fundamental things that you do will shake off this behaviour.

omginternets 6y ago

“Out of sight, out of mind” Seriously. Think about it this way: if you’re going on a diet, the first thing to do is make sure you don’t have cookies in the house. If you do, you’ll eat cookies. In much the same way, something as small as leaving your phone in another room will prevent you from reaching for your phone out of habit. Start with that.

sparkie 6y ago

Install GoodTime on your phone and have your work open on your computer. The computer should be free of social media and news feeds. Clear them from your browser history. GoodTime uses the Pomodoro technique to have you concentrate on a task for 25 minutes, then take a 5 minute break. Your 5 minute break could be you checking your email or whatever else, but also take break from sitting which can cause other health issues. When the 5 minutes are up, back to work. Stop making excuses to yourself. Only 25 minutes till you can check your feeds again. I'd also suggest using the Loop Habit Tracker app to keep track of habits you're trying to develop over a longer period. If you can perform a task continuously for 30 days, you shouldn't need to be reminded anymore to do it, it becomes a habit. This app lets you drop reminders as widgets onto your launcher which should draw your attention before your social media does. (Take your social media apps off the launcher home screen so there's an extra step you need to go through to access them). Also, on the computer, install LeechBlock or other similar addon and blacklist all of your social media and other sites which cause you to procrastinate.