[HN Gopher] Using a mild Twitter addiction to get things done
___________________________________________________________________
Using a mild Twitter addiction to get things done
Author : nkcmr
Score : 310 points
Date : 2022-01-03 11:08 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (nick.comer.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (nick.comer.io)
| jarjoura wrote:
| Focus Mode on iOS keeps getting better and better. I use it
| aggressively to limit all kinds of things, not just social media.
| It gets annoying when I need to legitimately open a locked app,
| but the benefits have been extremely worthwhile.
| dulvui wrote:
| For Android users I can recommend using the "Unlauncher" as home
| app. It's a simple and minimalist text only launcher that limits
| maximum 6 apps on the home screen and so all the shiny and
| addicting icons and animations are gone. You can find it on
| F-Droid or Github.
| janandonly wrote:
| There is a much simpeler, though less flexible, way to block
| certain apps and websites... namely the iOS ScreenTime setting.
| layer8 wrote:
| Doesn't work, too easy to turn off or to extend by another 5
| minutes indefinitely.
| akcheese wrote:
| nkcmr wrote:
| I have those on. For both of them (Twitter/TikTok). ScreenTime
| is a great first step by the platform itself (iOS) to help
| folks do this themselves.
|
| The difference between my post and ScreenTime is it leverages
| the brains gravity to the apps as a driving force of good
| habits.
|
| Also, one small flaw in ScreenTime makes it almost non-
| effective: it allows bypass with one click. When you've run out
| of screentime it will do its block, but then it allows you to
| bypass really quickly. If it simply made you jump through a few
| more hoops (Go to homescreen, Settings, ScreenTime, App
| ScreenTime config, bypass for day; for example) to bypass I
| think it would be respected way more (at least by me, can't
| speak for others).
| cypherpunks01 wrote:
| On Android, you can achieve just the "scheduling" aspect of this
| (restricting access to certain apps to certain times of the
| day/week) by using the "Digital Wellbeing" area of the Settings.
| Enter the "Focus Mode" settings, and you can add "distracting"
| apps to a list, and then set the Focus Mode schedule to disable
| the apps on that schedule.
|
| Yes you can get around it by tapping a button, the intent is more
| to make you realize that you are checking Twitter, rather than
| 100% preventing you from checking Twitter.
| ryanmonroe wrote:
| Can do this in iOS also, Settings > Focus
| vood wrote:
| Wow, I think this is a really good solution if it works for the
| author. Using same cue's to trigger more useful action.
|
| I've been fighting with bad habits all my life. Sometimes
| successfully.
|
| The social media addiction is the hardest to fight.
|
| Here is what works for me (not at all times): 1. Remove social
| apps and only use browser 2. Enable two factor auth and only keep
| two factor app on your laptop 3. Change password using password
| generator and don't save it.
|
| With all the above it makes it really hard to log into the social
| network.
|
| Now when you are done with the social media app, replace it with
| something useful: I replaced it with Google Books, and now
| whenever I have an urge I open a book instead and read it. Much
| better than meaningless scrolling. Alternative app - Google Keep.
| I use it for writing blog posts.
| andygcook wrote:
| The simplest and most effective hack I've found to curb my
| Twitter usage is to just log out every time I'm done browsing and
| set a time once I log in on how long I want to spend scrolling.
| If I'm logged out, it prompts me with the login screen and I have
| to really decide if I want to spend time on social media at that
| moment.
| padolsey wrote:
| This is really cool! Tho I've found it really hard to not just
| disable these self-made barriers when the urge overcomes me. I
| guess the trick is to create sufficient _additional_ barriers to
| disabling the (initial) barriers so that it becomes too costly
| vs. the 'hit' of the initial bad habit. I feel a more realistic
| blocker might be to increase the latency of these habits, so that
| they're in that sweet spot between accessibility and
| inaccessibility where usage is kind-of naturally regulated.
| Slowly demyelinating those quick-hit dopamine-infused pathways!
| :P E.g. imagine setting up an ISP level enforced latency for
| social media. Would that work?
| pjerem wrote:
| It can easily be done at OS level, forcing you to wait 30sec to
| 1min to open Twitter. Want to disable the timer ? Sure, it's
| possible in the settings, you just have to wait 1 min before
| being able to disable it.
|
| I configured screen time in iOS, but it just don't work, I know
| the code.
| layer8 wrote:
| Using the method in the article, it should be possible to
| restrict access to the Shortcuts app itself to certain times
| (for example to between 5am and 6am ;)), so that the original
| shortcut can't be disabled at any time.
|
| I can confirm that screen time doesn't really work unless a
| different person controls the code.
| pjerem wrote:
| So I checked and you can't choose Shortcuts app as a
| trigger.
|
| But I can understand why. This could be a recipe to break a
| device.
| webm-hn wrote:
| I think any sufficiently motivated person would be able to
| scroll no matter what (your example can be bypassed by a VPN I
| think).
|
| When I was quitting some vices, just interrupting the automatic
| Bored->browsing transition was enough to get me to make other
| choices
| eloff wrote:
| I also found this by just blocking things like HN in my
| /etc/hosts file. It's amazing how often I found my myself
| staring at an error page and then wondering why if I didn't
| make a conscious decision to go there. Habits can be
| unsettling like that.
|
| I only access HN from my mobile now, which I put out of reach
| when working.
| [deleted]
| etrautmann wrote:
| Neuroscience nit - you're likely depotentiating synapses rather
| than demyelinating axons.
| sharker8 wrote:
| I think progress would be to use terms like 'mild' and
| 'addiction' in different sentences.
| JDEW wrote:
| Wow, such a simple idea but I can totally see how this works (for
| me).
|
| Struggling with a 'mild' scrolling addiction myself and this
| might be a nice middle ground between deleting apps alltogether
| and not having guard rails.
| lolive wrote:
| [Disclaimer: newbie here]
|
| Wow, I had never ever opened the Shortcuts app. But I had heard
| about IFTT [If This Then Than] which sounds like a similar app.
|
| Is there a website to help us find existing Shortcuts workflows?
| Or a tutorial to (let's say) put a new reminder in a google
| calendar automatically[ _]?
|
| [_]: my current need, that seems not to be covered by the
| Reminders app itself :-(
| nefitty wrote:
| Reddit has a very active Shortcuts community.
|
| I myself have spent dozens of hours on Shortcuts. Maybe I can
| help point you in the right direction. What do you want to
| accomplish?
| gherkinnn wrote:
| My issue is not knowing where to start. The basics are
| uninteresting and the rest is a mystery.
|
| All I found on YT were either superficial introductions or
| productivity simps. Neither is what I'm looking for.
| nefitty wrote:
| I've been coding since I was a little kid and my first
| encounters with Shortcuts were intimidating.
|
| The thing that pushed me to learn it was perennial
| laziness. Anything that I see myself doing repeatedly
| becomes a target for automation.
|
| To specifically learn Shortcuts, I started by just throwing
| blocks in and seeing what they did. Another way may be to
| get other people's Shortcuts and then start rearranging and
| messing with what they created. It depends on how you
| learn.
|
| For your specific case, my approach would be to make sure
| my iOS calendar and Google calendar were linked. You can
| then use the Calendar->Create Event block, trusting that
| your iOS calendar will sync itself with Google. The other
| step, which might intrigue you due to additional
| technicality, is utilizing the Web->GetContents of URL
| block to make requests to remote APIs. You could
| conceivably make requests to the Google Calendar API with
| that block, and have it trigger on device-specific events.
| junon wrote:
| Side note, really like the layout of the site. Nice.
| air7 wrote:
| Ah, if only my "self" would be so docile.
|
| I used to have a few of my vice sites blocked on the "Hosts"
| level on windows. Unblocking this had enough friction for my self
| to not do on a whim, but them we came to the realization that
| Google Translate (with "Show Original") can be used to get Google
| to show me the site from the unblocked google domain...
|
| To my shame I actually did that absent-mindedly over and over,
| and that was the end of that little experiment.
| bytesandbots wrote:
| Shortcuts is my favourite new thing in ios. I only wish there was
| some way to get screen time data. I have never installed these
| endless scrolling apps in the first place, but I find myself
| using the mobile web version more and more. The data is there
| within screen time but no reliable way to read that from API or
| shortcuts. The app time limits are not in steps so I find them
| insufficient as a barrier.
| criddell wrote:
| What's the best way to learn Shortcuts? I've made a couple of
| ultra-simple things, but get stuck with anything slightly more
| complex.
|
| For example, I have a spreadsheet where I want to log my
| workouts. I have a shortcut that opens numbers and adds a blank
| row and that was easy to make. But now I want to add the
| current date in column A of the new row and I've never been
| able to figure that one out.
| nefitty wrote:
| With some of this stuff there's specifications that can be
| obtuse. It takes some research to discover what iOS expects
| an input to look like.
|
| For your shortcut, without knowing the specific step you're
| stuck at, first get the current date. You'll then want to
| format the date using the Calender->Format Date block,
| setting the custom format to what you need based on these
| rules: https://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime-970915
|
| I don't have Numbers, but maybe figuring out A1 spreadsheet
| notation might help.
|
| My general tips: use a whiteboard or a notebook to sketch out
| your pipeline, study other people's Shortcuts to learn new
| tricks, use the alert and exit blocks to debug stuff and
| finally, make sure you're coercing/casting data into types
| that Shortcuts can use (Scripting->Get Type will help).
| fleddr wrote:
| There's also value in prevention.
|
| For example, I've never used Tiktok in my life. I can't get
| addicted to it when I don't know what I'm missing. So I've
| internalized it as "silly teens dancing" and a "Chinese data
| grab", regardless of whether that is accurate.
|
| This works for me. Clearly, nothing of importance happens on
| Tiktok, as in the real world I never hear anybody about it. So at
| best I would be missing out on entertainment, but I don't have a
| lack of that, I have too much of it.
|
| I do use Twitter, where I also had the excuse to "stay on top of
| my industry". It's bullshit. Every industry has hundreds of
| weekly newsletters you can pick from that summarizes anything of
| significance.
|
| You don't follow these experts for their insights, you're
| addicted to the timeliness and unpredictability of it.
|
| Twitter is dangerous, it gets you addicted to hate and outrage.
| Uninstall it and never look back.
| kart23 wrote:
| great piece. Shortcuts are pretty cool, I find the ssh function
| super useful.
| kingcharles wrote:
| Does anyone know how to use a moderate-to-severe HN addiction to
| get things done?
| 0x53 wrote:
| I like this. I have really terrible willpower, to be able to set
| rules for what I want to do without having to consciously make
| the decision each time sounds great
| b3morales wrote:
| Exactly, yes! I said this on a related thread yesterday, but
| the "secret of willpower" is less in the direct application and
| more in the timing. You have to set yourself to up _not_ rely
| on just willpower at the moment of decision. Apply it ahead of
| time.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29773292
| calculated wrote:
| Point for me with all these blockers is the time before you
| access the app. You can get your mind together in these couple of
| seconds and decide that it's not good for you to go mad scroller
| mode again and instead close the app.
| lnanek2 wrote:
| Personally, I save TikTok for each night when I sit on a
| reclining bicycle in the gym and exercise for an hour or two.
| I've stolen the weight routine from Flywheel so it isn't all legs
| either.
|
| I do watch some Chinese lessons and electronics repair and
| cooking recipes and finance tips on there as well as the lighter
| content, though, so it isn't all pure entertainment.
|
| Since the author prefers walking, maybe another option would be
| to put Twitter and TikTok just on an iPad and mount it to a
| treadmill.
| throwJan21 wrote:
| I deleted my twitter account. I realize I miss out on some stuff
| but the wasted hours per week were really starting to add up. Its
| just not worth it.
| murat124 wrote:
| With the nicotine addiction the best method fighting it was Alan
| Carr's in which you don't rely on your willpower but on your
| perception. There's a monster in you that feeds on nicotine and
| it wants more nicotine. With each cigarette you make it happy and
| you depend on it more. Or you're just a fly falling down the tube
| of a carnivorous plant and with each cigarette you keep saying
| it's fine. Such analogies change your perception on how you look
| at nicotine addiction and helps you overcome it. Of course
| brain's rewarding mechanism and all the other related
| neurological/psychological concepts are important too but
| basically when you try to stop yourself from doing something
| (like, not smoking) then willpower kicks in and the success rate
| drops significantly whereas with perception you'll have a better
| chance.
|
| I see a similar problem with Twitter/TikTok/etc addiction. Only
| with them the issue is, the more you give from yourself to the
| platform the more you are addicted to it. I'm not addicted to
| Twitter, for instance. I follow 70-80 folks and am followed as
| similar but every time I post something I feel the need/urgency
| (such as nicotine withdrawal) to follow up, either to check the
| likes or the replies or whatever. Our brains are so dumb and our
| egos are so fragile keeping the distance becomes a challenge of
| its own.
|
| I don't recommend anything. Just keep your minds free.
| mpalczewski wrote:
| Alan Carr also has a new book on digital addiction(written by
| his co-author since he's dead). It's addresses some of the
| things that make digital addiction different from nicotine
| addiction(you get nothing from nicotine, whereas there are
| legitimate uses of tech).
|
| It's good stuff and is a great tool.
| coolspot wrote:
| > you get nothing from nicotine
|
| Nicotine is involved in neurochemical circuits. Intake (it
| doesn't have to be smoking) boosts focus and learning rate.
| [deleted]
| vagab0nd wrote:
| Solutions similar to the one mentioned in the article never
| worked for me. No matter how hard/inconvenient I make it to be
| (put phone outside of bedroom, delete app, etc.), when the
| addiction hits I will try my absolute best to circumvent the
| inconveniences. It's not even funny.
|
| I think the best is to fully recognize and understand the
| addiction, and then try to eradicate the root cause.
| nmilo wrote:
| Agreed. Beating bad habits/addictions is a change in mindset
| and identity. OP's system will work for a bit, and then it just
| takes one lapse of judgement for OP to inevitably turn the
| shortcut off for the last time, never to turn it on again. If
| OP told himself that "I am not a Twitter user" rather than "I
| have a mild Twitter addiction" it would be much easier to stop,
| just like the book tells people to think of themselves as "not
| smokers" rather than "trying to quit." Remember there is no
| value in Twitter or TikTok; if you think there is, your brain
| is lying to you.
| kixiQu wrote:
| > Remember there is no value in Twitter or TikTok; if you
| think there is, your brain is lying to you.
|
| I used to use Twitter a lot. I "took a break" last February
| that's still going strong, so I don't think my brain is
| "lying" too powerfully. There was real value in Twitter for a
| long time in my case, and I learned a lot there. I object to
| this framing.
| Thorentis wrote:
| For anybody wanting to explore this concept further, Oscar
| Wilde already did that long ago in The Picture of Dorian Grey.
|
| Essentially, [Spoilers] the more the hedonistic protagonist
| gives into his desires, the more a physical image of him
| becomes grotesque. I always imagine this when trying to beat my
| own bad habits.
| telxosser wrote:
| I have never been able to use Twitter. Once I follow more than 30
| people the feed is quickly overran with total nonsense and I
| delete the account.
|
| I honestly can't imagine what the feed looks like if you follow
| 1k people plus. It has to be nonsense at the millisecond level.
| The signal to noise just scales so badly. There just isn't that
| much interesting things going on in real time.
|
| This is a cool idea but I am going for a walk right now and
| listening to an audio book. I am really looking forward to the
| walk and the book. A tail to keep the flies away I am sure is
| nice but to me it is just better to delete the flies completely.
| My walks are the most peaceful part of the day for me. There is
| no motivation needed if you get rid of the overexcited storm of
| nonsense from Twitter.
| RankingMember wrote:
| It's helpful that Twitter's interface is terrible, so the
| frustration building with that eventually forces me to give it
| a rest if my own faculties don't cut me off sooner.
|
| That and the gifs...oh, the endless, repetitive, gif-only
| replies...
| mkehrt wrote:
| Two things that helped me (if it is useful to anyone)
|
| - Use a third party client that isn't a trash fire. I use
| Tweetbot.
|
| - Aggressively block retweets from individuals, which is
| supported by the API, so it persists accross clients.
| nojito wrote:
| >I have never been able to use Twitter. Once I follow more than
| 30 people the feed is quickly overran with total nonsense and I
| delete the account.
|
| It's because you quit before the reward cycle kicked in. The
| idea behind the scrolling timeline is that you keep scrolling
| until you find something that interests you (similar to a slot
| machine). With that reward you continue scrolling and rinse and
| repeat for the next item of interest.
| halfmatthalfcat wrote:
| The reason I was able to quit essentially all social media
| (FB, Twitter, Insta) years ago was I realized, outside of my
| very small circle of friends (on Discord) and the thoughts of
| people on HN, I have no desire at all about what other random
| people are thinking. After that, it was easy to throw them
| away.
| [deleted]
| georgyo wrote:
| Not who you are responding to, but maybe the slot machine
| effect is exactly why it does not work for me.
|
| To me loosing at the slot roll is actually fairly annoying.
| When I win, it is not a feeling of reward, but disappointment
| at myself. Infact, all games if chance really get under my
| skin.
|
| But I can doom scroll Reddit for hours. The big difference is
| that most posts have some reward, and a few posts have a big
| reward. But I don't feel like I'm wadding though mountains of
| garbage.
|
| I imagine this is why TikTok is also doing so well. Most of
| the videos are at least somewhat interesting. However I
| uninstall it quickly because of how dumb the content is as
| well.
|
| Twitter may have some golden nuggets, but panning for them is
| more painful then the reward.
| nojito wrote:
| Twitter, Reddit, TikTok are all using the same mechanism.
| It's about getting you through the initial cycles as
| quickly as possible to get you stuck in a longer more
| permanent reward cycle.
|
| It really has nothing to do with content at the end of the
| day.
| kingcharles wrote:
| TikTok, to my eyes, has produced a vastly superior brand
| of heroin. TikTok is the Fentanyl to Reddit and Twitter's
| crack rocks.
| pacifika wrote:
| Twitter is addicted to you.
| pastyboy wrote:
| Uninstalled twitter off my iphone, a great way to reclaim your
| life and your sanity, also noticed my stress levels dropped ;)
| jethro_tell wrote:
| Switched all my social stuff to mobile web apps only. I have a
| web app shortcut for Twitter but it doesn't notify or bug me.
| (Same for insta, LinkedIn, hacker news, reddit).
|
| I clear cookies on exit too so I gotta log in every time.
|
| They are there if I need them for something specific or if I'm
| really truly board enough to open my password safe log in, get
| the 2fa txt, reset my timeline to chronological . . ..
|
| I found the shear amount of obnoxious notifications that would
| trick me into opening the app or the low barrier to entry to be
| more than I wanted. And the WebApps that log out every time do
| a lot less tracking.
|
| Won't work for everyone but it's been pretty good for me.
|
| Ive also given longer form writing a first class experience, my
| news papers, Kindle, Patreon, pocket, overdrive have replaced
| the spots where I had social apps.
| foxhop wrote:
| https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/supernormal-stimuli/#pa...
| mox111 wrote:
| Can imagine extending this to Oura Ring (or similar) data
|
| "Sorry, your heart rate is already too high, no social media for
| you"
| zwischenzug wrote:
| How do people do this kind of scripting on Android?
| Nux wrote:
| Probably using Tasker or similar apps.
| Aldobrandi wrote:
| I haven't used it in a while but I believe the app Tasker
| should be able to do something similar to what's described in
| this post.
| superkuh wrote:
| There's no such thing as an addiction to a normal stimuli.
| Addiction is a medical word that should be reserved for people
| dealing with the problems associated with taking chemicals that
| directly alter wanting/desire in the brain. Even "gambling
| addiction" is just a relic from an uninstrumented past and really
| should be removed from DSM-6 at this point.
|
| Saying that internet addiction exists (something you won't read
| about in credible professional journal) is done by for-profit
| institutes that want you to pay them to talk about and handle
| "internet addiction". Or by useful ignorants with unrelated
| incentives.
|
| I get that this guy is just joking around about "addiction" and
| his approach to dealing with his own motivations seems realistic
| and useful. But when people start calling something "addiction"
| and meaning it it inevitably leads to the use of violent force by
| governments and restriction of freedoms. The "internet" is not
| addictive and even pretending it is only emboldens the ignorant
| and malicious.
| foxhop wrote:
| Tech & advertising is a supernormal stimulus.
|
| https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/supernormal-stimuli/#pa...
| foxhop wrote:
| alisonkisk: "what is the "proper" term for unhealthy urges that
| are extemely difficult to control?"
|
| Addiction.
| alisonkisk wrote:
| vehemenz wrote:
| > There's no such thing as an addiction to a normal stimuli.
| Addiction is a medical word that should be reserved for people
| dealing with the problems associated with taking chemicals that
| directly alter wanting/desire in the brain.
|
| You're mixing and matching metaphysical claims with
| prescriptions about how language should be used. When you say
| "there's no such thing" or "exists" with respect to types of
| addiction, what exactly are you saying?
| idinnoaname wrote:
| About a year ago I broke the Facebook doom scroll habit by
| setting an iOS shortcut to open a HN in a browser instead. Now I
| habitually doom scroll HN. Adding an element of incentive is a
| much better idea.
| nojito wrote:
| There's actually worthwhile evidence on how the new internet
| works to keep you addicted.
|
| I suggest reading through tiny habits by bj fogg (who's work is
| largely influential in this space) and turning it around to
| protect yourself from any addictive impulses you may have.
|
| https://www.bjfogg.com/
| gotrythis wrote:
| I just listened to a 40 minute summary of this book on Scribd,
| after reading your comment. This will be helpful. Thanks for
| sharing.
| dysoco wrote:
| Have you read Atomic Habits? If so how does this book compare?
| seems very similar
| nojito wrote:
| Tiny habits is written by an actual researcher. In fact Dr
| Fogg can be considered a founding father in this space.
|
| https://behaviordesign.stanford.edu/people/bj-fogg
|
| https://behaviordesign.stanford.edu/welcome
| smm11 wrote:
| Sheep
| DitheringIdiot wrote:
| Love this way of thinking about mild addiction. This is the basic
| premise of a web extension I made.
|
| It's blocks addictive websites until you've finished your to-do
| list. But crucially, when you try and go on those websites it
| redirects you back to your to-do list.
|
| It's a little rough round the edges but it could be useful to
| anyone suffering with this problem.
|
| https://prodtodolist.com
|
| Obviously it's free, no ads, no data collection etc. the Firefox
| version is having issues at the moment.
| orange_puff wrote:
| Hello. I just recently built a website blocker Firefox
| extension so I wanted to check your productivity tool out. The
| UI is really good and I left it a 5 star.
|
| If interesting in feedback; 1. It seems to only run the
| block/reroute to to-do list logic when a page is loaded. If the
| user is already on their site and then adds that site to the
| blocked list and has to-do list items, it won't be blocked
| immediately. I don't think this feature is vital but might
| align better with expectation. 2. Maybe show the to-do list and
| blocked sites button on the main extension popup, rather than
| having to go -> to-do list -> blocked sites 3. Maybe on/off
| button in case user has some sort of issue and needs to quickly
| access a site that is blocked.
| DitheringIdiot wrote:
| Thanks, that means a lot. That's very good feedback, I'm
| working on a new version at the moment with a lot of UI and
| accessibility improvements.
|
| I think you're right about the blocking issue. Anything that
| helps redirect people back to what they really want to do is
| important. There's so many little hacks like the one OP came
| up with that can help, and lots of room for more apps that
| make these hacks official.
| thenerdhead wrote:
| I have tried this many times in the past. The problem I have had
| with internet addiction is that the phone itself is the cue,
| craving, response, & reward. I had to resort to locking my phone
| in one of those timed kitchen containers to make any progress.
|
| It's sad to admit I do this, but the only way I've found myself
| to make a clear barrier is by having a physical barrier. I've
| tried shortcuts, VPNs, mindfulness apps, etc. Nothing really
| sticks if it's on the phone itself.
|
| On-top of that, having to give each device a job has worked
| wonders as well. My phone is my personal/entertainment device. I
| don't need it majority of the time if at all. My computer on the
| other hand is my work device where I do the things I should be
| doing instead of endlessly scrolling (coding, writing, etc).
|
| Screentime on macOS can show you how many times you pick up your
| phone and it makes me quite sad to see the numbers before doing
| any of this. There are other apps that count how many times you
| open a specific app like https://apps.apple.com/us/app/one-sec-
| take-a-deep-breath/id1... which reveals the same thing on an app
| basis.
| nkcmr wrote:
| I totally agree with what you're saying. If you simply try
| limiting it, the brain will just want it.
|
| I think turning it into a "reward" for getting things done puts
| the addiction in a different light, and at least for me, it has
| made it easier to respect the barriers I have put into place.
|
| So instead of "no apps allowed!" it is now "hey, do these good
| habits, and once your done you can have the apps" creates..
| (idk I'm not a psychologist or anything), but a more genial
| approach to limiting the addiction and it feels more effective
| as a result.
| [deleted]
| collin128 wrote:
| Live this and have a similar system, I think of them as content
| zones. Two ideas I haven't seen in other comments are:
|
| 1. Kindle next to bed for reading (leave phone out of reach/in
| another room to charge helps)
|
| 2. Good book on back of toilet and no phone allowed in there.
| Helps start the day with a small piece of learning.
|
| I started #2 (sorry) when I was struggling to finish Seeking
| Wisdom and figured reading 5 mins a day would get me through.
| Took 3 months but it worked and turned out to be the perfect
| place to digest dense content like it.
| dcoo wrote:
| Agree with the other commenters - it's not sad to admit to
| designing your environment in a way that is conducive to good
| habits. I use something similar to the timer container method
| as well. Our brains are plastic, and there will only be more
| evidence showing how phones have significantly altered them.
| eloeffler wrote:
| Curiously, it seems to be the backlight that's the cue for me.
| Anything, a phone, a laptop, a desk screen, can bring me into a
| distracted state very quickly. I really hope e-ink devices will
| give me a bit of a relief once they become affordable (which is
| delayed due to expensive patents, as I understand it).
|
| I experience this when trying to read lenghty text on e-ink
| devices vs. a computer screen or phone. On the other hand, a
| kindle or remarkable don't give me as many options to distract
| myself so a more versatile device might still distract me even
| with e-ink.
|
| Time will tell but for now it subjectively feels like the light
| emission (any color) has a very adverse effect on me, unless
| distraction is what I'm looking for :(
| person101x wrote:
| You may be interested in the Light Phone which uses an e-ink
| screen. I've been thinking of getting one myself, but can't
| quite pull the trigger.
| kubanczyk wrote:
| You could try a self-lit e-ink (like Kindle Paperwhite) to
| determine whether it's the light emission.
|
| I doubt it. I see the same kind of distraction in myself, and
| it's not triggered on any e-ink reader, whether lit or not.
| So it seems to be related to functionality indeed.
|
| Important point is that I've never used a web browser on any
| reader.
| throwJan21 wrote:
| My part solution is to get an old phone with a small screen. It
| makes playing many games nearly unbearable and the whole
| experience much less enjoyable.
|
| Ideally I'd like to get rid of my phone altogether but is hard
| to live without some things like Uber and email. Has anyone
| managed this? Work requires Authenticator assumes everyone has
| a phone too.
| thathndude wrote:
| There is absolutely nothing "sad" in admitting this. The great
| lie of the latter half of the 20th century was this mistaken
| belief that there is some baseline, normal for humans.
|
| Although I think it can go off the rails a bit sometimes, one
| of the most promising aspects of medical research and science
| in the last 20 years has been a recognition of how our brains
| work differently, and how much of our behavior is largely out
| of our control.
|
| And from that comes a wonderfully freeing idea. Specifically,
| that what works for one person is not going to work for
| everyone. It's a blessing to find what works for you (even if
| it's "abnormal"), and to have the courage to do what's best for
| you.
| [deleted]
| monopoledance wrote:
| Amen.
|
| For those with poor executive functioning, or ADHD, I can
| really recommend the podcast "Hacking your ADHD":
| https://www.hackingyouradhd.com/podcast
|
| Ironically, it's less focused on "productivity hacks", but
| rather a functional self-understanding why we "fuck up" and
| how to manage our limited brain resources and most
| importantly: _Anticipation_ of willpower depletion /different
| moods and mindsets.
|
| Personally, I thing the typical "productivity hacks" blog
| posts shared here, are quite toxic, as they rarely speak
| about resources, resting and regeneration, or ask why work
| anyway? Especially coming from the US, where people work much
| longer, have less time off. There is a flair of normalizing
| self-exploitation and walking a path towards burn-out and
| sickness, and I don't even think most of those blog post are
| authentic, _long term_ success stories - just farming clicks
| and subscribers for the attention market. They are much like
| Instagram distorting self-expectations.
|
| The ADHD community is a parody of the HN crowd in that
| regard, people share new "super effective" tricks and
| routines enthusiastically all the time. Finally we found the
| solution! But sober us knows these tricks will not stick for
| more than a week or two - and really, we shouldn't be online
| right now to begin with. The thing is, that improving daily
| task management is not to be thought of as a project, but am
| ongoing maintenance process. So in that community, there is
| also the sentiment of changing "routines" all the time, to
| keep them interesting and challenging.
|
| So maybe, you even need come up with a new scheme every day.
| That's fine too. In any case, I dare you to not forget to
| evaluate your need for regeneration, day dreaming, sleep and
| pleasure, and anticipate different moods and mindsets you
| know will be present.
| conradev wrote:
| Thank you for the recommendation for the podcast, I am
| looking for exactly this
| thathndude wrote:
| Thanks for sharing. ADHD here!
| tra3 wrote:
| Thanks for an insightful post. Is there a specific episode
| of the podcast you can recommend? Or just jump in?
| monopoledance wrote:
| Also, maybe report back, if you don't mind. Would love to
| get a reality check, if it's just another fiction of
| self-improvement, or if others see the usefulness, as
| well.
| monopoledance wrote:
| I can't vouch for the most recent episodes, as I haven't
| listened to them yet, and I don't mind those interview
| ones much. Otherwise most episodes had some insights and
| ideas, I found noteworthy, which resonated with me - and
| they are always only a few minutes long, even less when
| you, like me, increase playback speed to keep focus. Very
| ADHD friendly. Maybe just don't binge them all at once,
| but have the individual eps echo a bit.
|
| To start somewhere (going by title here), maybe try those
| episodes about gotchas and pitfalls (lol, they kind of
| all are about that, regardless of title; the author
| knows, we tried all the "hacks" already...), about energy
| management, "Waiting for Inspiration", or the fresh start
| ones. I think I also liked the "Five Frameworks to Build
| Powerful Goals", but that one doesn't really demonstrate
| what I like about the podcast.
|
| Hope there is something for you too <3
|
| Edit on my original post: Jeez. Sorry for grammar and
| typos. I thing... I was still very tired. Awful.
| beckman466 wrote:
| > The ADHD community is a parody of the HN crowd in that
| regard, people share new "super effective" tricks and
| routines enthusiastically all the time. Finally we found
| the solution!
|
| sounds a bit like https://reddit.com/r/thanksimcured
| monopoledance wrote:
| Yeah, but as a monologue.
|
| The thing with ADHD folks is, we constantly seek
| stimulation/neuronal excitement, so if we manage to do
| anything, we somehow tricked our brain into enthusiasm,
| or hit another strong motivator like anxiety, or shame.
| And working out productivity "hacks" itself is usually
| some spin-off from a much more pressing task, or self-
| entertainment. _Everything_ feels super important and
| like the best idea ever; enthusiasm is the only way.
|
| So naturally, we tend to share tricks and "habits" before
| they have proven effective - they just felt really
| important... - as they have not been tested against the
| boredom of every day. And not everyone in that community
| is self-meta yet, sees the patterns and gets a bit wary
| in face of those "good ideas".
|
| Honestly, I think everyone can learn something from ADHD
| behavior, as we're just the essence of executive
| dysfunction and impulsivity, the deconstruction of
| "motivation" (egosyntonic task scheduling) and actionable
| impulse (actually switching tasks), the deep end of a
| spectrum. Usually people can relate to our problems, they
| are just _not problems in their lives_ as much.
| u2077 wrote:
| I often let my phone run out of battery and put it in a
| completely different room (not charging). Like your locked box,
| the only way I don't get distracted is if I can't access the
| device even if I wanted to.
| archsurface wrote:
| I realised the multi-purpose device problem one evening when
| wanting to turn on my living room wifi-iot-light. I picked up
| my phone to use the light app, saw notifications, checked the
| news, checked some other things, put the phone down. A few
| minutes later, I remembered I wanted to turn the light on.
| Picked up the phone, saw notifications, checked the news,
| checked some other things, put the phone down. A few minutes
| later, I remembered the light, picked up the phone, started
| checking things, and thought wtf am I doing, I've just checked
| these apps twice already!? Stood dumbfounded and concerned at
| my obsession, then remembered, oh, the light! Distractions.
| hk__2 wrote:
| This is exactly my issue. My OTP app is on my phone so I
| _have_ to use it half a dozen times a day. I reduced
| notifications to the bare minimum (only messaging apps) but
| just checking one of them deviates me from the thing I was
| trying to achieve (get the OTP and go back to work) and it's
| too late.
|
| I haven't tried the new "do not disturb" improvements in iOS
| 15 so maybe there's something interesting there.
|
| Edit: I just tried with the "at work" setting that allows you
| to disable notification badges and other things during work
| hours; let's see how it goes.
| MarcelOlsz wrote:
| >I haven't tried the new "do not disturb" improvements in
| iOS 15 so maybe there's something interesting there.
|
| If only I can have DND on 24/7 and not have the home notif
| about it that would be golden.
| mkingston wrote:
| There are OTP apps for desktop operating systems. Hopefully
| that helps!
| BoiledCabbage wrote:
| But a second cheap phone. Uninstall everything from it, no
| data plan, wifi only and use it as a remote control.
| chrismaeda wrote:
| This is your brain crying out for adderral. You could
| probably show this paragraph to your doctor and get an ADHD
| diagnosis... ;-)
| a45a33s wrote:
| TIL amphetamines are the cure for iphone addiction
| teekert wrote:
| Many apps are designed to do exactly this, so you outsmarted
| them by at least realizing they got to you... so don't feel
| bad about it. I have the same tendencies, and, at least for
| the smarthome stuff it is the reason I still want physical
| (albeit Hue/ZigBee) buttons everywhere (combined with
| automations based on time/events). I think this is also what
| the builders of Home Assistant strive for, I really like this
| piece (it has come up here many times so you may know it [0,
| 2016].
|
| [0]: https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2016/01/19/perfect-
| home-a...
| MarcelOlsz wrote:
| I've dealt with this by deleting all messaging apps from my
| phone, deleting all my socials, and not installing anything
| that isn't default to my phone. My phone looks like you just
| turned on a brand new iPhone. I only use it for
| texts/calls/calendar/email. Email notifs also turned off.
| Unsubscribed from netflix/spotify/x crap service and deleted
| their apps.
|
| It's been bliss. I've been considering getting a landline and
| chucking this thing out the window as it is useless for me.
| After about 3 months I unlearned my old behaviour and can
| barely remember what I used to do on this thing 3+ hours a
| day.
| boogies wrote:
| Real addicts don't need any specialized apps. I have a
| Pinephone with SXMO and no social/messaging apps (except a
| weird dmenu-centric Reddit client I never use) but my IRC
| and HN addictions are still fed by an eternally open
| terminal and browser (though I can close them with a swipe
| or squeeze, they inevitably rise again unscathed when I ssh
| back into the server where weechat lives in an immortal
| tmux or reopen Firefox and tap "Restore Session").
| iqanq wrote:
| Disable all notifications, or even remove the apps
| themselves.
| DitheringIdiot wrote:
| the way I've dealt with this issue in the past is to put all
| my apps into one folder on the Home Screen (iPhone). Then the
| only practical way to access apps is by searching for them.
| So you have to remember why you went on your phone in the
| first place. I've slid back a bit, by not keeping on top of
| notification settings but generally it works.
| jrm4 wrote:
| A restriction I put on myself early on that has served me VERY
| well:
|
| No social media on the _phone,_ period. Also, no notifications
| from anything that doesn 't come directly from a human I know
| personally, to the extent possible.
|
| Don't worry, you can still waste huge amounts of time on the
| computer too, like I do. :) Seriously, I'm relatively comfortable
| with my facebook/twitter use, though even that I need to adjust.
| tambourine_man wrote:
| > All this is nice, but obviously, it can be bypassed. Nothing
| stopping me from simply disabling the automation, then no more
| nagging.
|
| That's the problem with this solutions for me. If I don't have
| the willpower to stop myself from using the phone, what's
| preventing me from disabling the nag?
|
| The only thing that's ever worked for me, and it's amazing, I
| highly recommend it and should do more often, is go somewhere
| where there's no internet connection. No celular signal, no Wi-
| Fi. A single weekend can do wonders.
| mpalczewski wrote:
| I've done something similar but without tech. I used my coffee
| addiction to form a meditation habit. I made a rule for myself.
| No second coffee until I meditate. My meditation habit became
| very regular.
| kevingrahl wrote:
| > iOS, by itself, weirdly does not have any APIs for looking for
| workouts in its own "Fitness" app like this, so the top block is
| a third-party app..
|
| No need for third party app at all!
|
| https://kevingrahl.de/temp/shortcuts.png
| gherkinnn wrote:
| Having similar problems. Most of us do, I suppose.
|
| Complex solutions or these "digital well-being" things do nothing
| for me.
|
| Instead, I install as few apps as possible and use the web
| version instead. My browser regularly flushes the cookies, so I
| gave to log in for most things and it resets all the
| recommendations.
|
| To top it off, no charger in the bedroom.
| pacifika wrote:
| What will it take for Twitter / TikTok to take responsibility?
| tjpnz wrote:
| Big Tobacco never took responsibility; why would Big Tech?
| Partaking in these apps is a personal choice, if you want to be
| a BUMMER[0] addict that's on you. At the same time the state
| should have a responsibility to warn people of the dangers, in
| the same way that they did for Tobacco. There's already enough
| public health data and studies on the human brain showing just
| how harmful these apps are.
|
| [0] Behaviour of Users Modified and Made into an Empire for
| Rent (https://www.amazon.com/Arguments-Deleting-Social-Media-
| Accou...)
| thenerdhead wrote:
| There was a minute when big tech cared to take responsibility
| with screen time / internet addiction concerns. But somehow
| through the pandemic that has disappeared when we need it the
| most.
|
| I think it will require an extension of the "right to
| disconnect" policies being made that give the user a choice in
| how much content they want from each platform.
|
| It's unreasonable to think this is an individual's problem at
| this point. Maybe in the early 2000s. Tech is designed to be
| addictive for many reasons (social, behavior, etc) and those
| creating the tech need to take drastic action.
|
| Instead of OKRs that increase screen time, ad revenue, etc.
| Maybe they should have goals to cut individual's time on a
| screen for the good of humanity rather than shareholders.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-01-03 23:01 UTC)