[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What are some mentally healthy apps to have?
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Ask HN: What are some mentally healthy apps to have?
Like many of us, I'm in a battle to minimize social media and
related apps influence over my life. But I'm not at a point where I
want to just toss my phone in the corner and forget about it
either. I'm looking for some apps that people use and get genuine
value out of. Can I learn something while I'm bored on the couch?
Keep up with some unbiased news while I'm using the toilet? Etc
Author : rco8786
Score : 94 points
Date : 2022-06-08 11:23 UTC (1 days ago)
| saperyton wrote:
| I installed a parental control app on my phone to make it
| automatically turn off at 10:30 PM. It's a small move that made a
| world of difference and I've been going to sleep much earlier as
| a result. (The "parent" doesn't need to be an actual parent, it
| can be a friend too.)
| kkirsche wrote:
| Calm / Headspace or other meditation apps with settings tweaked
| to turn off things like streaks and only show notifications for
| your goals.
| a_bonobo wrote:
| I use Waking Up for guided meditations (if you can stand Sam
| Harris). There are a few promo code around Google for a few free
| weeks. It's a 'how to meditate' course followed by daily
| meditations, with a bunch of podcast-style interviews and
| collections of recordings. The course has really helped my shape
| my meditation practice, and I usually do the daily meditation,
| which has really helped me focus myself.
|
| (Another guided meditations app is Plum Village - free, but a bit
| worse quality, with a bit more random order of things.)
| jebarker wrote:
| I second the recommendation for Waking Up. I previously tried
| Headspace and Calm, but Waking Up was the only one that stuck
| for me. I think the difference was the structured nature of the
| introductory course, good intuitive explanations from Sam
| Harris and the accompanying "theory" discussions and talks.
| adamhi wrote:
| DeathArrow wrote:
| I have on my phone:
|
| Google Maps, Waze, LinkedIn, Reddit, a monitoring app for my car
| and Edge browser. Reddit isn't used frequently.
| bryan_cooper wrote:
| Cadoo - great bite sized workouts
| spacemanmatt wrote:
| RunKeeper's icon makes me remember I run. So I sit with better
| posture, maybe eat a little better. Because I will be less happy
| on my next run if I don't. Having that help with my physical
| health benefits my mental health pretty directly.
| standardly wrote:
| > Can I learn something while I'm bored on the couch?
|
| I have two _very_ generic suggestions, but I offer them in good
| faith since both goals you listed are related to learning.
|
| 1.) Wikipedia. My knowledge on most topics is a mile wide and an
| inch deep. If you're anything like me, going down a wiki rabbit
| hole is a pretty satisfying time-waster. If you want something
| more structured, Khan Academy is amazing.
|
| 2.) Reddit.. Except it's critical that you unsub from all default
| subreddits and big subs like r/technology etc, and only subscribe
| to niche subreddits for whatever hobbies or interests you have.
| These communities aren't as active so you won't have a million
| links to click on each day.
|
| The other suggestions such as learning a new language, or playing
| puzzle games, are obviously good options as well.
| iroh2727 wrote:
| Anything that's not connected to the internet.
| wsc981 wrote:
| The 7 Minute Workout [0] app from Johnson & Johnson is nice. Free
| & no advertising.
|
| "Mens sana in corpore sano" [1] as my dad used to say :)
|
| ---
|
| [0]: https://7minuteworkout.jnj.com
|
| [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_sana_in_corpore_sano
| Infernal wrote:
| I got excited about the J&J app, but requires creating an
| account to use it at all, and for some reason the iCloud "hide
| my email" isn't available on the account creation page.
| dontbenebby wrote:
| Can you cite the privacy policy too please?
| bovermyer wrote:
| Genuinely curious about this question. Were you unable to
| search or browse the site for some reason? What was the
| impetus behind asking this?
| wsc981 wrote:
| Here you are: https://7minuteworkout.jnj.com/#privacy-policy
| dontbenebby wrote:
| Thanks!!
| JTbane wrote:
| For me, AllTrails is great for biking/hiking, and lets you share
| things with some light social media features.
| zethsg wrote:
| I find this value in this one https://www.wakingup.com/ from Sam
| Harris
| kwatsonafter wrote:
| In the spirit of Marshall McLuhan; changing the channel doesn't
| change the media. You're a dignified person. You needn't engage
| with the world of ideas through your thumbs and a 4 inch light
| hole at all. You're important-- if someone needs your
| correspondence it would be appropriate that this be facilitated
| by mail and by computer e-mail when time is a concern. Emperors,
| judges, and men of consequence don't communicate ideas in,
| "texts" or, "feeds" and you're an emperor; a modern Man-- someone
| and something of enormous consequence. Treat yourself right. You
| deserve it. You're intelligent and capable. Don't let the myth of
| modern culture into yourself at all. You're too valuable for
| that.
|
| All the best.
| bckr wrote:
| This is a very efficient way to end up very lonely.
| ellopoppit wrote:
| So is using social media
| DeathArrow wrote:
| Put your phone in airplane mode and live it in your pocket. Get a
| Kindle with you, for the times you want to consume content.
| kenbolton wrote:
| I was opposed to electronic reading of all types having spent
| much of my life in academic libraries. I'm now on my second
| Kindle Paperwhite; I gifted the previous generation to a
| sibling's seven-year old. The Kindle is the only device I take
| truly everywhere: grocery shopping, strolls in the woods,
| kayaking & sailing, to bed, to the skatepark. It lives on my
| body or within three feet. During eight hours of emergency eye
| surgery for my late dog, the Kindle allowed me to escape the
| most anxious period of my sheltered life. While waiting at the
| DMV, the Kindle preserves my sanity. What could otherwise be
| stressful time becomes an opportunity to enjoy literature or
| non-fiction and grow my understanding of this world.
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| This is how I started in 2014 and I have given this to so many
| people, and they love it. Start by disabling notifications
| everywhere except for critical ones that are key to you.
|
| https://brajeshwar.com/2014/missing-step-productivity-activi...
| q_andrew wrote:
| I agree about what others are saying about internet access being
| a pandora's box of stress and depression, so I think creative
| apps would fit your description a bit better.
|
| Even if you're not the artistic type, you should try Townscaper:
|
| https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.OskarStalb...
|
| It's a bit like meditating, you lay out these tiny little island
| villages that add all of the extra little details for you. It
| helps me cope with the world.
| thom wrote:
| The off button.
| sethetter wrote:
| I've tried to retrain myself to open Obsidian (and have Obsidian
| configured to always jump straight to my daily note upon opening)
| if I compulsively pick up my phone. From there, I'm either going
| to write about what I'm actually trying to accomplish in the
| moment, or realize I had no real goal and just compulsively
| picked up my phone as happens more often than I'd like. It's then
| much easier to just put my phone back down instead of getting
| locked into browsing random internet streams, or I just do
| whatever thing I actually got my phone out to do.
|
| I've injected some intentional friction into an otherwise
| compulsive habit, which opens up the opportunity to redirect that
| behavior. It's been very a helpful switch so far.
| dabinat wrote:
| I did three things that really helped:
|
| 1. Delete all social media apps and remove bookmarks of
| frequently visited sites so I'd have to type them in instead of
| just clicking.
|
| 2. Bought an Apple Watch. This allows me to know when I have a
| call or text without needing to have my phone next to me all the
| time. The watch is more limited than a phone and you can't browse
| the web on it.
|
| 3. I use an app called "OffScreen" which helps set targets for
| maximum hours or pickups per day and then it nags you if you
| exceed them.
| raintrees wrote:
| Calibre, for me - And then choice books to read. Finished quite a
| few in the last 6 months, topics ranging from Linux internals, to
| philosophy, to financial management, to health...
|
| I choose to invest my electronic time in learning more skills or
| relationships in why something seems to be the way it is.
|
| Recent kick has been practicing the Roman Trivium, then I will
| tackle the Quadrivium.
|
| And I use an Amazon Fire that my wife bought for me, permanently
| in airplane mode, as well as night-time (easier on the eyes). I
| transfer content via USB.
|
| YMMV.
| nestorD wrote:
| I use ReadEra[1] to read books on my phone. At first it was a
| quick fix for those times I do not have my ebook reader with me
| but nowadays it has become my default: having an ebook reader
| on your phone means that any dead time in the day is an
| occasion to read. Plus, it is surprisingly good at reading
| pdfs, which is sometimes useful (technical books, research
| papers, etc).
|
| [1]:
| https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.readera&hl...
| dmytrish wrote:
| Calendar, maps, clock/timer, dictionary.
|
| As for learning: Coursera was good years ago, Stepik might be a
| good site/app too. I haven't tried edX on mobile.
|
| Duolingo to learn languages. Your Youtube feed can be curated to
| something almost sensible.
| otter-rock wrote:
| Audubon and Merlin Bird ID.
| wepple wrote:
| I'll add "PictureThis" for identifying plants and trees. And a
| good stargazing app.
|
| I don't generally like the idea of dragging tech into the
| enjoyment of nature, but being able to learn about the natural
| world so easily lights a fire of curiosity about the wild
| things and wild places that are so good for my mental health.
| dontbenebby wrote:
| Intro:
|
| Why are you putting more apps onto the phone when you could live
| with the ones you have?
|
| Body:
|
| I haven't used Android in years but the high level concepts I'm
| describing probably apply equally, I've noticed a lot of cross
| pollination of ideas between them and us "iOS folks"[1][2]
|
| Here are three apps you can use to improve your mental health, by
| reducing the chances your phone will be hacked and helping you
| plan your + make predictions.
|
| 1.) Notes app + emoji.
|
| I have not used Android on a day to day basis for years, but on
| iOS, you can "pin" lists. Title the first line with emoji, then
| the second line with a description since titles are visible if
| someone forces you to unlock your phone.
|
| Then add password to the notes.[3] A long one, stored in a
| password manager of your choice, or just write it down and put in
| in a safe place, like your wallet, or a physical safe. Or
| memorize it. Or use another technique I don't publish (because
| some things should be kept esoteric and offline)
|
| Then set up a few lists like "Dailies" (stuff like morning
| pushups), "Groceries" (stuff you need from the store), Names
| (first name plus a few details about business contacts, lovers,
| and/or agents of foreign power).
|
| 2.) Clock app
|
| Add a few time zones, and start checking them whenever you see an
| event in the news.
|
| I currently have UTC, Zurich, London, New York, Toronto, and
| Tokyo.
|
| (But I also have little mental hacks for each, like "Brussels is
| London plus one" so I'm not clogging the list with every single
| city that's on my radar.)
|
| 3.) Stock app
|
| Add a few stocks you're interested and currencies. When you read
| a news article, check the time zone, then check the stocks and
| currencies. Try to guess if they'll be up or down. Don't record
| if they were -- you're training yourself to trust your gut.
|
| Conclusion:
|
| If you do these three things every day for a couple years, you'll
| start to get the same rush you get when you put a bullet in the
| center of a target, or successfully hack a server for the first
| when you confirm you were correct... but be careful -- on the
| rare occasions you're wrong, you'll probably need to smoke a
| strong indica to recover from the sad feelings you'll incur
| knowing you were wrong and will have to start the process over
| tomorrow.
|
| Citations:
|
| [1] I very purposefully chose an iPhone as my comms device. I
| don't want total control of my phone. I want a set of vetted apps
| to select from, protected by a strong passphrase so folks can get
| a warrant, spend millions or billions of dollars to get into my
| phone, or literally match me up with some catphishing goth girl
| informant who will probably go white as a sheet and panic when I
| just look her in the eye, tell her I'm not a serial killer, then
| go into the bathroom to turn off my phone as she rifles through
| my backpack.
|
| [2] Ich besitze immer noch keine Schusswaffe, aber ich habe allen
| Spielern im Spiel gesagt, dass es kein Softplay mehr geben wird.
| Habt einen schonen Tag, wenn ihr konnt.
|
| [3] https://support.apple.com/guide/security/secure-features-
| in-...
| johnernaut wrote:
| I found an app called Meomind (https://meomind.com/) recently
| that has helped me a lot. It has a collection of _real_ recorded
| therapy sessions from individuals that they 've decided to share
| (with personal details scrubbed I assume) that you can listen to
| at your leisure. They're categorized as well, so if you're
| looking for understanding why you have a lack of interest in
| things, are having relationship issues, etc... you can find
| topics that you're interested in. It's been super helpful for me
| to realize how many people have the same issues or are in the
| same boat as me without me having to go in to see an actual
| therapist.
| westcort wrote:
| Very cool! I tried to find transcripts of therapy to develop a
| system. This is the result:
| https://locserendipity.com/Therapy.html
|
| It doesn't always respond sensibly, but repeating the query
| will usually hit on a sensible answer after a few tries. It is
| best used with an intermediary who can enter the queries and
| respond in a way that is consistent with how a therapist might
| respond in a real session.
| ianbicking wrote:
| Hm... it feels about on par with Eliza. Or at least I haven't
| gotten it to provide any constructive insight or meaningful
| questions. At its best what kind of interactions can it
| produce?
| westcort wrote:
| Sure, here is an example of a productive exchange:
|
| Bot: Hello, I am a chat bot to talk with about problems.
| What can I talk with you about?
|
| You: Well I have a bit of a problem with having trouble
| getting myself to exercise
|
| Bot: And so it seems like there's a way to find out what
| the right opportunities for you are.
|
| You: well I enjoy rowing on my machine
|
| Bot: It sounds like a challenge to me, isn't it? Is there
| something in you says, I don't want to something unless
| it's really right?
|
| You: Sure, but I enjoy rowing on the machine, it's just
| hard to set up a consistent time for those things
|
| Bot: You said you want to to deal with this problem and get
| rid of it.
|
| You: I am not sure how to set up a system so that I will
| exercise
|
| Bot: And again, tell me some times where you felt like you
| were doing the right thing. What were some other times
| where you had those kind of feelings?
|
| You: Well, I had that feeling when I was out running
|
| Bot: You're saying too that you know perfectly well the
| feeling within yourself that occurs when you are really
| doing something that's right for you.
|
| You: Yes, so you are saying maybe I need to vary my
| exercise routine to some degree?
|
| Bot: And that's something of interest to you?
|
| You: Maybe, I could try it. Maybe I could do an hour of a
| different exercise on some days
|
| Bot: That's true. That's very true.
|
| You: Okay, so that's what I will try. Do you think there
| might be something else I can do to make myself more
| consistent?
|
| Bot: Is it fair to say that you feel, really, that at times
| you're acting in ways that are not in accord with your own
| inner standards?
|
| You: well yes
|
| Bot: And you want to learn new things. Is that fair to say?
|
| You: Yes I do want to learn new things
|
| Bot: What might you say?
|
| You: I might say that I could learn some strategies to be
| more consistent about my exercise, or try something new and
| see what works for me
|
| Bot: What are you doing about that?
|
| You: I could set up an exercise log in a paper book
|
| Bot: All right. So you mentioned feeling guilty about
| making a choice. How do you feel about that right now?
|
| You: Maybe a little better about it because I know there is
| something I can try to improve my exercise routine or
| improve my consistency
|
| Bot: The point is, you haven't forgotten.
|
| You: Right, I am motivated now
|
| Bot: It sounds like a tough assignment.
|
| You: Yes, but I am up for it
|
| Bot: One thing I might ask, what is it you wish I would say
| to you?
|
| You: I guess you could say you think I can make it work
|
| Bot: Well, yeah. It sounds like one of the hard things is
| that you really value the time late at night.
|
| You: Yes, maybe I could shift more to the morning
|
| Bot: Is that the main idea?
|
| You: Well maybe ultimately it is because if I got up early
| I could make the time to exercise with more consistency
|
| Bot: You mean you want to get over this for yourself?
|
| You: Yes, it is my responsibility
|
| Bot: That sounds right.
| rootsudo wrote:
| I would say none, having a dependence on a app to be "mentally"
| healthy is just code for addiction and dependence. Removing the
| addiction to phone usage, and the feedback of notifications is
| the better way.
|
| This goes in with what I feel about those "headspace" and
| meditation apps, making "welness" a subscription as a service.
| Disgusting.
| [deleted]
| giords wrote:
| - Inoreader, with few sources such as BBC that don't focus on
| sensationalism - Lichess
|
| I dropped all the social media except for Twitter, just because I
| use it really rarely (less than once per day)
| LeonB wrote:
| As a thought experiment, imagine you had a smart phone without
| internet access (but it was somehow able to download apps).
|
| Apps you would want on that device might include a lot of healthy
| apps.
|
| For example --
|
| It would replace many of the devices we used pre-internet. A
| compass. A calendar. A guitar tuner. A pedometer. A notebook. A
| recipe book - where you place recipes. A recording device - and a
| bank of guitar effects pedals.
|
| These are all healthy apps in my opinion.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Creative apps are healthy apps.
| jnovek wrote:
| Procreate my well be the best value per dollar of anything
| I've purchased in my entire life measured in hours of joy and
| self-improvement it has provided.
| prismatix wrote:
| I second this. I purchased an older ipad pro, pencil, and
| procreate for probably around $900 total. I rarely use the
| iPad for anything else (whiteboarding is the other main
| use), and joke that it's my Procreate machine. It's still
| the best money I've spent.
| grumblepeet wrote:
| Same here. I bought Procreate for my older iPad Pro and it
| has proved to be a real game changer for me. It transformed
| my relationship with the device so much that I installed a
| few other image tools on there and now it is my go-to for
| creative work. I also bought some art 'books' on the Kindle
| app and that has also helped with my mental health.
|
| At some point in your life you get bored of doom scrolling
| on various apps and even browsing the web I'm now totally
| bored of it all. There isn't anything new. Getting creative
| on the iPad using Procreate and using the phone for its
| camera to take reference shots and arty photos has been
| great. We have marvellous tools at our disposal and to use
| them for social media or reading rehashed blog articles
| masquerading as news seems like a crime to me. At any point
| in history people would have loved to have those tools
| available!
| javajosh wrote:
| Cool. It looks like KidPix for adults.
| em500 wrote:
| You've hit the nail on the head. The problem is not the phone,
| it's unlimited internet. You can waste almost as much time on a
| laptop with unlimited internet as on a smartphone. OTOH, it's
| pretty hard to get into unhealthy smartphone usage without (or
| with serverly rationed) internet access.
| AlecSchueler wrote:
| I can recommend Plant Net and Bird Net. They're recognition apps
| for plants and bird songs respectively.
|
| They've given me a way to be more curious about the natural world
| around me and get me out of the house and actively engaged in my
| environment.
|
| It's a bit like an educational alternative to Pokemon Go.
| stefanjokull wrote:
| The meditations on Withsara are nice, after that my go to free
| option is Insight timer.
|
| https://www.withsara.com https://www.insighttimer.com
| vjaswal wrote:
| I second this recommendation for Insight Timer. I just use it
| as a timer that's nicely customized for meditation, though it
| has guided talks and recordings that others may find useful.
|
| The timer is MUCH better than the built in iOS timer. It has
| pleasant (less jarring) bell/gong sounds and customizable
| presets.
|
| It also keeps track of your sessions which is useful as a
| subtle nudge to keep a routine practice.
|
| It's not essential but is nice, useful and free.
| cpach wrote:
| I have found Headspace very useful for learning how to practice
| mindfulness and meditation. It's very easy to get started with.
|
| https://www.headspace.com/
| Neff wrote:
| I'm a big fan of Oak[1][2] since it is free, but unfortunately
| it is iOS only. Being able to have on-demand guided breathing
| and meditation exercises without having a monthly cost make it
| good enough(tm) for me
|
| 1: https://www.oakmeditation.com/ 2:
| https://www.oakmeditation.com/privacy-policy
| fassssst wrote:
| Koala Sampler. It's incredibly fun and you're actually creating
| things instead of just consuming. No music background required.
| dotancohen wrote:
| * Anki * Duolingo
|
| Now Duolingo is gamified so you need to ignore those aspects. If
| you don't feel like studying today, then don't let the Streak
| stress you. What is nice about Doulingo is that you can actually
| skip a day or two and pay with "gems" to keep your streak. The
| gems are earned when actually studying.
| joe5150 wrote:
| Language learning apps are great, but they all need
| notifications disabled or they quickly become annoying.
| Duolingo is particularly bad about this and the language they
| use to "encourage" you to open the app is so weird and
| manipulative that it has become a meme [1].
|
| I like Clozemaster a lot and I don't think it sends any
| notifications by default unless you opt into a once-daily study
| reminder.
|
| 1: https://www.google.com/search?q=duolingo+meme
| bussierem wrote:
| Another option (better IMO) is "Busuu". It's free and very
| similar to Duolingo. It has some gamification with streaks but
| it is way less pushy, plus has a community aspect built in that
| I really like.
|
| It did a way better job teaching me cyrillic/Russian than
| Duolingo had up to that point.
| staunch wrote:
| Audible: I listen to 2-3 books a month while exercising,
| cleaning, eating, etc. Often ones I've already listened to.
| Almost exclusively biographies and other historical non-fiction.
| My main frustration is that there are so many great books not
| available on Audible. But there is a lot of good stuff.
|
| Podcasts: People like Sean Carroll, Dan Carlin, and Sam Harris
| are regularly having amazing public conversations and
| interviewing amazing people. There's also some funny podcasts
| like Conan O'Briens or David Spade/Dana Carvey's.
|
| I find listening to good content more exciting, fulfilling, and
| relaxing than any other form of brain stimulation.
| dontbenebby wrote:
| jimmygrapes wrote:
| I hope these posts gets flagged (mine, and yours), because
| Jesus Christ dude. It's in the past now but that sort of
| mentality to something so far beyond practical reality is
| really terrifying. I hope you got some psychological help and
| are better now.
| dontbenebby wrote:
| Not sure I follow you. What I need is folks to stop being
| violent and crazy, then expressing false concern about my
| mental health.
|
| I'm fine, as long as I don't have to worry I might have to
| eventually kill someone, not just choke them until they
| decide to get away from my front door.
|
| (That's a thing that happened. I'm deciding if I'll press
| charges.)
| ddtaylor wrote:
| I think he is referring to the fact that this is a pretty
| low-key topic about a website to learn new languages, but
| your reply involves a very divisive political topic that
| you seem heavily invested in. It's almost as if you went up
| to the counter at an Arby's and started talking about
| intense political subjects to the person taking your order:
| it's very out of place.
| stevenfoster wrote:
| Peloton's app has become core to some of my mental health
| routines. Even if you don't have the bike, the 10min guided
| workouts are fantastic for getting your body moving. But my most
| used feature is the meditations. I've racked up over 600
| meditation sessions since the beginning of the pandemic and it's
| helped me greatly.
| zkirill wrote:
| iPad: Alo Moves, Books, The Economist, Notes
|
| Apple Watch: Fitness
|
| A few years ago I made it my personal goal to pick up my phone
| only when absolutely necessary and that has done wonders for my
| mental health. For photos, I have a Canon G7 X and appreciate
| that it only has one job and it does it very well.
| virtuscience wrote:
| You could use Greg [0] to learn how to grow plants. Disclosure:
| I'm one of the co-creators :). There's also a thriving community
| [1] that has become honestly surprisingly healthy/supportive.
| Think "Strava for growing plants".
|
| We're still early, any feedback is appreciated. We raised our
| seed round [2] last year, check out that announcement for more
| info on our long-term mission.
|
| ---
|
| [0]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/greg-easy-plant-
| care/id1512912...
|
| [1]: https://greg.app/community/
|
| [2]: https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/27/greg-an-app-for-plant-
| love...
| dQw4w9WgXcQ wrote:
| App looked really cool until I read it has Tinder Engineering
| DNA. What a heap of trash app Tinder turned out to be over the
| past couple years, but maybe Greg will be good for a few early
| years like Tinder was until it turns into a gamified dark-
| pattern botany app.
|
| Just imagine, we have to buy Greg Gold to access additional
| plants beyond grass or weeds, purchase water-boosts to unlock
| the next time we have to water plants (or they die). Maybe even
| have a hidden ELO system on our plant pics where the less
| healthy our plant condition looks the more we have to pay for
| Greg credits so it'll dish out the plant-care advice we rely on
| to prevent our entire garden from dying.
| ddtaylor wrote:
| DuoLingo for learning languages. Works up to a point and is
| useful as a starter.
| FranzFerdiNaN wrote:
| For East Asian languages i would recommend LingoDeer.
| edu wrote:
| I love Medito[1], it's a free app to learn and practice
| meditation. It offers a ton of packs ranging from first guided
| meditations to beginners to very focused topics (i.e. sleep,
| manage pain...) from research collaboration with universities.
|
| Ah, and it's available for Mac and Android.
|
| 1. https://meditofoundation.org/medito-app
| baremetal wrote:
| >But I'm not at a point where I want to just toss my phone in the
| corner and forget about it either.
|
| Why not? it works.
| horsawlarway wrote:
| Yeah... I do exactly that fairly frequently (often enough it's
| a running gag in my family that if you want to call me - call
| my wife, since I won't have my phone.)
|
| It turns out that your phone is an incredible tool, but only if
| taken in small doses. In larger doses - it's a nightmare
| device, actively designed and engineered to suck as much free
| time from you as possible.
|
| The answer is simple: Stop using it except for explicit
| reasons.
|
| If I want to dick around with tech - I'll use my
| desktop/laptop.
|
| My phone is for
|
| - Checking messages twice a day, once in the morning, once in
| the evening (sometimes more frequently if I'm coordinating with
| or meeting folks).
|
| - Maps & GPS
|
| - Shared internet connection if I need to use my laptop while
| out and about
|
| - Unlocking my e-bike
|
| That's it. I'm down to about 5 total apps I open
| (phone/camera/messages/maps/ebike) and I have never liked my
| phone more.
|
| 5 years ago I was on my phone all the time and miserable. It's
| much better to lug around a magazine or kindle, or turn on a
| podcast. Just don't get sucked into the time trap that "social
| media" is engineered to be. It's literally digital cancer.
|
| Basically - don't open websites or social media apps at all.
| baremetal wrote:
| >Yeah... I do exactly that fairly frequently (often enough
| it's a running gag in my family that if you want to call me -
| call my wife, since I won't have my phone.)
|
| I am a big fan of leaving my phone in a different room if i
| am coding or in the car if i am building something. Problem
| is i run a business now and i have to be reachable, in case
| someone calls.
|
| But i dont use any apps other than maps on my phone nowadays.
|
| >If I want to dick around with tech - I'll use my
| desktop/laptop.
|
| That is exactly what i do.
| flobosg wrote:
| Not exactly what you're looking for, but I've had fun checking
| the Oblique Strategies app every now and then.
| Apreche wrote:
| Get rid of all the apps where you consume content, except for
| maybe an eBook reading app. Reading books is still good.
|
| Fill your devices only with apps that allow you to create
| content. Don't even worry about sharing the content. Just get
| apps that let you create. Photography, video, code, drawing,
| writing, music, whatever.
| jmeister wrote:
| Yes this works for me.
|
| Even dumping my thoughts into a note-taking app(I use Roam)
| helps me a lot.
| f0e4c2f7 wrote:
| Kindle
| FranzFerdiNaN wrote:
| This would also be my answer. Put the phone away, preferably
| out of arms reach, and read a book.
| [deleted]
| benjamaan wrote:
| this https://www.enjoybloom.com/ - the exercises really helped me
| to gain mental stability and a year later I'm now flourishing
| from it
| sph wrote:
| Extremely unpopular opinion from a software engineer on a tech
| forum but: mental health is as far away from the Internet as
| possible.
|
| The more you can integrate the slower pace of nature and natural
| life, the better your mental health. Your physical presence is
| optimised for long days of doing fuck all, sitting in the grass,
| waiting for a deer to pass by.
|
| Still struggling with this, but my long term life goal is living
| in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with easy access to the
| unnatural and constantly accelerating flow of information that is
| the Internet.
| [deleted]
| fritzo wrote:
| Did I misread? Wouldn't you want "middle of nowhere with _no_
| easy access to the ... Internet "?
| sph wrote:
| No, the Internet is fun, in moderation, and it pays the
| bills. But then I want to switch off, step outside my front
| door and sit in the grass, soothed by the sound of insects,
| birds and wind.
| wepple wrote:
| I too did a double take on that, I thought you'd left out
| "without". It's a hard balance huh?
|
| Perhaps the ideal way would be to have your main cabin with
| no real internet, and a 100 yard path to your tiny work
| cabin with internet. A physical friction to prevent
| needless interruption.
|
| One can dream.
| horsawlarway wrote:
| > mental health is as far away from the Internet as possible.
|
| I don't think it's the internet, exactly. But anywhere on the
| internet where your attention has been commoditized.
|
| Basically - if you aren't paying to use the app (and it's not
| decent open source software), get that fucking cancer out of
| your device.
|
| Just the basics: messages, calls, GPS, maps, shared connection,
| photos/videos
|
| those make one awesome, compelling device. Don't ruin it by
| letting fucking scum companies siphon all your energy and
| attention away for their own profit (and they are actively
| trying - complete with statistics and graphs, OKRs & key
| performance indicators... all painting a picture about how much
| they can fuck you by stealing all your attention and time)
| falcolas wrote:
| Turning off notifications - all notifications - helps quite a
| bit. It's a lot easier to ignore attention-grabbing apps when
| they can't put their attention grabbing alerts in front of
| you.
|
| I have an iPad explicitly configured this way, and it's
| incredibly relaxing to use it.
| cupofpython wrote:
| That does sound pleasant. I wish I could push notifications
| into a todo list with 1 button / click. I am usually not
| bothered or distracted by seeing a notification, but having
| to choose to delete it or act on it immediately is what
| gets me. I tend to delete everything and keep the
| interesting ones in the back of my mind for later ("I
| should check out my gf's new IG post")
|
| I like notifications, and I try to respond to them
| intentionally. I open apps intentionally (this was easy
| enough to learn) _and close apps intentionally_ (this was
| hard to learn). So I am pretty good about actually going
| into the app to do what I intended to do in response to the
| notification, and then closing the app. I can reassess
| afterwards if I want to spend more time in the app and open
| it back up, but again I create an intention before opening
| it that has a stopping point.
|
| Intention is the difference between enjoying some funny
| short videos while sitting in a waiting room, and losing
| 1-2 hours of your life a day to doomscrolling. And if I
| could have a filtered list of notifications in a todo
| somewhere, I can set aside time to update myself on whats
| new that I care about but arent super important
| cupofpython wrote:
| i still find games to be great for my mental health, even more
| so now as an adult than as a kid. they are a place where i can
| make uninformed decisions based on my gut, and experience no
| negative consequences to my life. i treat every game like a
| sandbox. dont get sucked into the idea that anything you build
| or create, or skills you develop, in the game is meant to last.
|
| For example, in an RPG game when I find a powerful 1-time use
| item - I use it as soon as I can.
|
| There are many factors to optimal _decision making_ , and
| optimized _results_ are just 1 factor. Games help me explore
| trade-offs with quick vs long decisions, side effects of over
| planning, stress and panic effects on decisions, etc.
|
| It carries over into the rest of my life, even work, where I am
| better able to manage things, like diminishing returns on my
| efforts, in ways that are very personal to me and my natural
| tendencies.
| stareatgoats wrote:
| > waiting for a deer to pass by
|
| We don't know everything about the era that shaped our bodies,
| there are a few contradicting narratives:
|
| One being that we were mainly scavengers during the time that
| our brains grew to this size, especially savoring the marrow of
| the large bones of the large animals that used to roam the
| earth before we finished them off and had to look for other
| sources of highly nutritious foodstuffs. [1]
|
| Another (albeit questioned) is that we hunted prey by running
| them to exhaustion, so called persistence hunting - a far cry
| from "waiting for deer to pass by" [2].
|
| Some do argue that the preagricultural societies seemed to have
| plenty of leisure however [3], so you might be right :-).
|
| But the larger point is if we would be mentally more healthy if
| we stuck to the old ways of hunting mammoths - or if we are
| first and foremost adaptable ... I guess my penny is on the
| latter, within reason.
|
| [1]
| https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/evidence-f...
|
| [2] https://undark.org/2019/10/03/persistent-myth-persistence-
| hu...
|
| [3] https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/for-95-percent-of-
| human...
| sph wrote:
| > the larger point is if we would be mentally more healthy if
| we stuck to the old ways of hunting mammoths
|
| Certainly, if me and my buddies could hunt a whole mammoth
| our entire tribe could afford to do nothing for a month, as
| meat lasts a while in cold latitudes.
|
| Sadly, nowadays one can't work very hard for a week and ask
| the boss to take the rest of the month off.
| LoveMortuus wrote:
| One thing is for sure though!
|
| They didn't have to pay taxes!
|
| (this is a joke)
| JTbane wrote:
| Village elder want meat, but they no hunt. Grug no like.
| AndrewUnmuted wrote:
| > The more you can integrate the slower pace of nature and
| natural life, the better your mental health. Your physical
| presence is optimised for long days of doing fuck all, sitting
| in the grass, waiting for a deer to pass by.
|
| I am 1000% on board with this perspective, yet find your
| prescriptive solution to be a tad askew.
|
| To me, the early internet - especially the pre-broadband days -
| was very similar to "doing fuck all," waiting for something to
| come by my screen to engage my focus & attention. In fact, the
| keyboard-driven computing world was a very pure invocation of
| the hunter-gatherer mindset. I wrote an article on Medium about
| this back in 2017, called "Tyrannical Illiteracy." [0]
|
| I have yet to conceive of a more fitting description of today's
| internet than that.
|
| [0] https://medium.com/@AndrewUnmuted/tyrannical-illiteracy-
| part...
| Ensorceled wrote:
| > Your physical presence is optimised for long days of doing
| fuck all, sitting in the grass, waiting for a deer to pass by.
|
| No, your physical presence is optimized for being active most
| of the time. If you do "long days of doing fuck all", you'll
| lose bone density, muscle mass and probably gain weight and a
| mass of health issues. You'll probably experience cognitive
| decline.
|
| The older you get, the more rapid these issues manifest
| themselves and the more important constant activity becomes.
| marban wrote:
| Reading this from a cabin in the middle of nowhere -- However I
| combine it with regular work and news consumption but it's
| definitely beneficial to be able to easily step outside for
| ideation and decision making, or some push-ups in the grass.
| wanderingmind wrote:
| This is my future plan too. Make a rooftop solar with
| integrated battery and buy a high speed starlink.
| noufalibrahim wrote:
| Some apps I've found genuinely useful.
|
| 1. A Simple habit tracker
|
| 2. Stock Google apps - Calendar, Mail, Maps, Keep, Meet (or
| whatever it's called now)
|
| 3. C25K for running
|
| 4. A few investment apps for crypto and stocks
|
| 5. Messaging - Signal, Telegram, Whatsapp, Discord
|
| 6. Audible - For those long drives
|
| 7. NewPipe - A much better Youtube/Spotify client
|
| 8. Brave - I try to use sites instead of apps for most things
| (twitter, Amazon, other shopping, bank etc.)
|
| 9. Password Manager
|
| 10. Dropbox
|
| With the messaging apps, how you use it can decide whether
| they're going to kill you or improve your life. Your boundaries
| need to be especially strong here.
| bckr wrote:
| * c25k (couch to 5k) is an app I just started using to train for
| long distance running. A week ago, I thought I could only run for
| 2 blocks. With the first 2 runs on this app (and the advice from
| r/running to run slower), I now realize I can run a lot further
| than that already.
|
| * SnoreLab & SnoreGym. My partner told me I was snoring and
| waking her up. Well, this app made it easy to collect data on
| that and then perform experiments in how to reduce my snoring. I
| now have a pretty great regiment and get a lot better sleep.
|
| * LoseIt! A calorie tracker with a great library of foods. You
| can also track your weight and the premium subscription lets you
| track a lot more like body fat percentage (you'll need to get
| this professionally measured), water intake, and a lot more. You
| could do this yourself, but there are a lot of convenience
| features like creating recipes, seeing graphs of your weight
| overtime and getting estimates of how long it will take you to
| reach your goals, given your behaviors. I've used it multiple
| times during different periods of weight loss, so it has years of
| my weight history in it.
|
| * SoundHound + Shazam. "What's this song? I love it!" Well now
| you know what it is and it's in your library. beautiful.
|
| * Music, podcast, and audiobook apps. What's not to love?
|
| * YouCut video editor. Got a little time and want to be creative?
| Combine with some other video effect apps and some of your own
| video or content downloaded from Reddit (I find I can download
| anything when I visit in browser) and you've got a nice little
| craft.
|
| * Stellarium. I want to use this one more than I do. It's an AR
| star map. You calibrate it and then it shows you where in 3D the
| Planets and constellations are. As a city dweller I feel really
| disconnected from the night sky, so I downloaded this one.
|
| --
|
| I will say that specifically on the toilet I have challenged
| myself to write instead of consume. Write what? Anything. Just
| write more. Open up an email to myself and... start writing.
| mrfusion wrote:
| What did you find helped with snoring?
| bckr wrote:
| Super hydration right before bed, nasal saline spray, wedge
| pillow. Secondarily hot shower before bed, nasal opening
| strips. Over the long term, weight loss.
| drited wrote:
| You mentioned unbiased news, I read Reuters daily on my phone and
| think it fits the bill.
| falcolas wrote:
| Lots of good app recommendations - let me suggest something
| slightly different that can help:
|
| Disable notifications. ALL notifications (barring - maybe - email
| and IM), including the little red counters on the icons. Move all
| non-essential apps off of the front page (perhaps even off of a
| "page" entirely).
|
| This does wonders for making using a phone a pleasant experience.
| The "engagement" apps no longer have automated hooks into your
| attention - it lets you dive into them as _you_ want to, not as
| they want you to.
|
| I can go entire days forgetting that Facebook and Twitter are
| even a thing, since the lack of icons fools my dopamine circuits
| into believing that there's nothing new that requires my
| attention (which, mild entertainment from doomscrolling aside, is
| generally the truth). It makes it easy to pick a book or puzzle
| game instead.
| joe5150 wrote:
| iOS "app library" has been a huge improvement to the iPhone
| experience for me for this reason. I don't keep any apps on the
| home screen anymore, just widgets for the weather, quick
| contact buttons, etc. (I also have a widget to show my 'Today'
| mailbox from Mail.app, but it never updates properly, so I'll
| probably get rid of that.)
|
| For a long time I've had notifications turned off for all
| social media apps using their internal settings, but the newish
| "notification summary" feature has helped to cut down on noise
| from other apps that like to send stray notifications.
| kworks wrote:
| Few links to mental health cultivating apps on my phone:
|
| Plum Village: https://plumvillage.app/ Free, extremely
| comprehensive meditation app. Does not require subscription or
| mine data like most such apps.
|
| WOOP: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/woop-app/id790247988 Free.
| Simple app with text prompts.
|
| Point of information: (W)ish (O)utcome (O)bstacle (Plan) is a
| deeply researched and effective approach to working with goals,
| habits, et al. More info here: https://woopmylife.org/en/home
|
| Streaks: https://streaksapp.com/ Nicely designed habit tracker.
| Responsive developer.
|
| Perhaps these prove useful to someone.
| westcort wrote:
| Web version of Woop: https://woopmylife.org/
| idoh wrote:
| Anki - jam everything into here. Various work facts, chess mate
| in X move puzzles, watched movie plots, every time I make a
| mistake I add it, etc.
|
| BrainHQ - train your brain every day, get sharper. I found out
| about it after reading that Tom Brady uses it to be a better QB.
| After using it for a couple weeks I could notice a difference.
| thefourthchime wrote:
| Just tried BrainHQ, neat app. Thanks!
| idoh wrote:
| If you want to try it out, my recommendation is to set a very
| moderate goal, like ten minutes a day (an app setting) and
| then just stick with it. Don't be like me and who set it for
| 30 minutes, and then burned out.
| [deleted]
| drited wrote:
| Love anki. On the topic of brain training, an n-back app
| working memory training app. Evidence is mixed on whether it
| works. Anecdotally I've used it and think it worked for me.
| It's free to train, only cost is your time. I think the risk
| reward is in favour of trying it for 8 weeks.
| idoh wrote:
| The brain training app has n-back style questions. I find
| them extremely challenging, which is probably a good thing!
| [deleted]
| valbaca wrote:
| These are my "good" apps:
|
| - Spotify: everyone loves music. Put it on speakerphone. Dance
| and sing silly while you cook.
|
| - Shazam: discover music. Exactly what apps ought to be.
|
| - Google Maps: Does what it does.
|
| - Google home: setting my lights to match the time of day / mood
| / or movie.
|
| - Google Authenticator: 2FA is good
|
| - "Justin Guitar", a simple guitar tuner, and a metronome app:
| I've been learning guitar
|
| - Duolingo: my wife and I have been learning Spanish together.
|
| - Apple Books, Libby, Kindle: I use Books for PDFs and epubs I
| "find" online or get through Humble Bundle. With Humble Bundle
| you can get a TON of books for super cheap. Libby for getting
| ebooks from the library. Finally, Kindle for books I purchase b/c
| I couldn't find them anywhere else.
|
| - Audible: for audiobooks, which was more important when I had a
| commute.
|
| - Stranger "Things to do": very specific to Seattle, but connects
| me to my community by giving fun events and activities to check
| out.
|
| - Carbon: also specific to my interests, this is the best life-
| tracker app for Magic the Gathering Commander games. Worth the $5
| upgrade.
|
| "Mixed" apps:
|
| - Discord. At best it keeps me connected with my friends. It was
| invaluable during the pandemic and strict quarantines. But can be
| addicting, toxic, and net-negative.
|
| EDIT: from a comment below, I also realized that _everything_ on
| the Control Panel is a Good App: airplane mode, low power mode,
| add note, add audio recording, alarms, timers, stopwatch,
| calculator, flashlight, Apple Pay, Shazam, and camera.
| thire wrote:
| A note about Google Authenticator. There are alternatives which
| imo are much better, like LastPast Authenticator or Authy. They
| work exactly the same but they can back up your codes securely.
| Big plus if you lose or change your phone.
| bdcravens wrote:
| Since it's just based on TOTP, seems like writing your own
| would be one of those bad idea "I could do this in a
| weekend!" fun projects :-)
| beepbooptheory wrote:
| Yeah I just learned this in fact, that the Google
| Authenticator app is one thing that does not sync to my
| google acct seamlessly (read: without asking). Learned it the
| hard but not unrecoverable way thank goodness.
| pablomalo wrote:
| On Android, I really like Aegis, https://getaegis.app. Open
| source, biometric unlock, automated backups. Available from
| the Play Store and Fdroid.
| thefourthchime wrote:
| At least one iOS there is a built-in Shazam button in the
| control center if you enable it. It's a faster way to find out
| the song that's playing.
| valbaca wrote:
| yep! I'm on iOS. Everything on the Control Panel is a Good
| App: airplane mode, low power mode, add note, add audio
| recording, alarms, timers, stopwatch, calculator, flashlight,
| Apple Pay, Shazam, and camera
| yieldcrv wrote:
| tangential: Regarding Duolingo, its nice that its a fun
| gamified thing for you and your wife to do together, consider
| formal education though. A 3-month class at community college
| will propel way further than believing Duolingo's method has
| short circuited a mental process. Duolingo is a decent addition
| to another learning method. But level 25 isn't going to be
| fundamentally different than level 7, it will never tell you
| "why/when/context" and that's very limiting, whereas a teacher
| can tell you in 20 seconds.
| valbaca wrote:
| For sure. Duolingo alone is not sufficient.
|
| We supplement with other materials. She checks out Spanish
| books from the library and I'm latino, so my (elderly) family
| is Spanish-speaking.
|
| My parents just didn't learn Spanish (it was "bad" to have
| any Spanish accent in the 70s and 80s), so I didn't know
| Spanish growing up either.
| vijay_harsh wrote:
| Try Calm. I started using it few weeks back because I was facing
| sleep issues. It's totally worth the monthly price you know. The
| speakers are great and the white noise effects work like a charm
| to calm your senses.
| dontbenebby wrote:
| Do they require Bluetooth or can you run a cable if you're
| willing to buy a dongle?
| davzie wrote:
| I would recommend reducing your activity spent in the online
| world. It's mostly not reflective of anything in real life and
| the business models of everything that usually gets our attention
| there is manipulative enough to be a drain on your energy, mental
| health and sanity. Treat it like another world that is sometimes
| fun to jump into, but one that should not ever be taken
| seriously.
| tomatocracy wrote:
| Don't forget boring old Ebook reader apps eg Kindle. Spending
| more of those little 5 or 10 minute breaks on reading a decent
| (fiction) book instead of browsing social media etc was one of
| the best things I've done for my happiness in the past couple of
| years.
| mellosouls wrote:
| I agree with the principle - but the apps are ultimately
| comparatively unhealthy compared to hardware ereaders like
| actual Kindle.
|
| I rarely use the app as I've normally got the latter with me if
| I'm going to have time to read.
| ilc wrote:
| Good apps:
|
| Pandora: Don't share your channels, just enjoy some tunes.
|
| Non F2P Games: Dream Quest (Great rogue-like). Sentineles of the
| Multiverse, most all the Inkle games.
|
| Soulver: Great for quick calculations, with units.
|
| Weather: For when you go outside. (Gasp)
|
| Lyft/Uber: Need a ride?
|
| If you are a traveler, airline apps can be handy. Some credit
| card apps are decent.
|
| Overall, just avoid social media and free to play games, and
| you'll have a good time IMHO.
| randrews wrote:
| I have an app for cryptic crosswords, and a few puzzle / card
| games (Venbrux Software, and stuff by Zach Gage, are good). I
| also turn off almost all notifications (I can get actual text
| messages and phone calls and my alarm clock and that's it).
| felipeerias wrote:
| An ebook reader (ideally not an app but a separate device that is
| only for reading books).
| throwaway24124 wrote:
| - Duolingo - Chess apps (My favorite is Really Bad Chess,
| where everyone is given the same randomized board and tries to
| beat the computer once a day) - Wordle and variations (my
| favorite is Tradle, given the export data, guess the country)
| - BeReal (the only social media I enjoy) - Niche review
| apps (I like HappyCow for reviewing restaurants with vegan/veg
| options)
|
| Basically, since wordle came out, I've realized that the only way
| I can limit myself on my phone is deleting overly addictive apps
| like Twitter and try to stick to apps where there is a daily
| goal, and once those are solved I can put the phone down and read
| a book or go outside. I do use the Twitter web app with iOS app
| limits set to 15 min for each social media app, so I'm not
| completely cut off, but it's short enough to not get sucked in.
| gordon_freeman wrote:
| +1 for your question. I am at a constant struggle with my news
| addiction to the point where I am not achieving my life goals and
| I end up being mentally stressd constantly reading sad stories on
| CNN, WSJ, NYT, CNBC etc. I am also addicted to HN and probably
| spend more than 3+ hours surfing it everyday (at least I get a
| good value out of using HN) and everyday I just dream about not
| opening any news apps on my phone browser but as soon as I wake
| up, the first thing I go for is the browser on my phone. Would
| love to see how others are dealing with this news addiction?
| trompetenaccoun wrote:
| Sorry if this sounds blunt but the question is a bit like "what's
| the least harmful kind of crack I can get to improve my health?"
| From the way it's phrased it sounds like you're struggling with
| mental health and excessive phone/devise usage. The two issues
| might be related, my advice would be no app.
| jnovek wrote:
| I've been stuck in bed due to medical stuff quite a bit over
| the last year. My iPhone has essentially preserved my sanity.
| Like any powerful tool, the user can can choose to make it good
| or bad.
|
| I learned quite a bit about music theory and writing music over
| the last year. The iOS music ecosystem is fantastic and
| affordable.
|
| I've been drawing in procreate on my iPad for several years but
| this also helped pass the hours.
|
| Those are both pretty wholesome activities for something that
| you describe as "crack".
| turtlebits wrote:
| While that works for you, pen/paper, or even books and
| magazines/newspapers are great offline alternatives.
| Bhurn00985 wrote:
| > The iOS music ecosystem is fantastic and affordable.
|
| I've been having good experiences recently with Flip for some
| quick fun jams.
|
| Any suggestions of the "fantastic" kind ?
| drcongo wrote:
| Depends what kind of music you're interested in making, but
| Pure Acid [0] is insanely fun. There's a ton of very
| serious music tools on iOS too, on the host end I'd
| recommend NanoStudio 2, AUM or Drambo.
|
| [0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pure-acid/id1481283602
| rchaud wrote:
| Delete every recreational app on your phone. Also delete anything
| that gamifies passive consumption, e.g. Duolingo.
|
| Put some ebooks on your phone and read those. Stop mentally
| associating the phone with the infinite novelty generated by
| algorithmic social and YouTube feeds.
|
| Do not open your web browser unless you have a specific search
| query in mind.
|
| Disable all notifications except for the calendar and clock.
|
| Treat your phone as if it had no online connectivity. When you
| open the phone, use it to organize your notes and structure your
| thinking, or to look at photo gallery. Begin thinking of it as an
| extension of your brain instead of a bottomless anti-boredom
| device.
| vanka wrote:
| I try to use pencil and paper before getting on a computer. You
| stop thinking with images when you do this.
|
| I was so distracted by other apps that I created an anti-to-do
| list application for myself (no features or notifications,
| etc.).
|
| If somebody wants the simplest possible to-do list at the menu
| bar, I'm running a beta test right now;
| https://vanka.me/redline
| finolex1 wrote:
| Isn't Duolingo the exact opposite of passive consumption. It's
| virtually a spaced repetition app that requires you to answer
| questions.
| dt2m wrote:
| > Put some ebooks on your phone and read those.
|
| This was the biggest improvement I did to improve my "phone
| time".
|
| I realized I was only kidding myself if the actual goal was
| zero screen time. Being unproductive and just killing time by
| yourself isn't a bad thing, but if you spend that time reading
| something substantial instead of news and Twitter beefs you
| don't hate yourself afterwards.
| pwillia7 wrote:
| For the ebook suggestion, I am LOVING Readera pro where it
| syncs all the files and reading positions across devices via
| google drive. Makes it so easy to pick up any of my devices and
| keep reading. I love to read but it is so hard to start doing
| because of all these other easier 'distractions'
| hawkar20 wrote:
| > Do not open your web browser unless you have a specific
| search query in mind.
|
| I'd counter this one. I've too often caught myself watching
| something, talking to friends or reading a books and being
| captured by the need to just quickly google that thing
| triggered by what I am doing at the moment. Most of the time
| you don't really need to know that information, your curiosity
| gets the better of you. Instead, maybe just make a quick note
| and stay in touch with that you're doing instead. Otherwise
| your life just becomes an endless list of interruptions
| prompted by needing to know that "one thing".
| throwaway193948 wrote:
| occasionally when im having strong willpower i will force
| myself to not google whatever random fact i need to know.
| it's almost physically painful at first, but then after a
| couple days my brain starts feeling much better
| yosito wrote:
| > Also delete anything that gamifies passive consumption, e.g.
| Duolingo
|
| Since when is Duolingo passive consumption? I've learned two
| languages to fluency and Duolingo was my main source of
| practice. If language learning is your goal, Duolingo is a
| great app to keep around.
| kjerzyk wrote:
| Congrats! I'm actually quite surprised because you must be
| the first person that learned a language using Duolingo. Most
| people I spoke with said they only learned how to answer Duo
| questions, not the language itself.
| pcl wrote:
| I've used Duolingo quite a bit as a part of my Norwegian
| training, and to brush up on my French now and then. It's
| definitely been effective for me. And I've seen others
| become tourist-proficient in languages with no training
| aside from Duolingo.
|
| I definitely don't consider it passive consumption.
| probably_wrong wrote:
| During my German B1 test I met a person who had only used
| Duolingo for learning the language. They had successfully
| passed most of the test... except for the spoken part,
| which they had already failed once and which Duolingo
| doesn't really help you with. And based on what I heard,
| they probably failed it again. So I guess you _can_ learn
| something with it to a decent level.
|
| On the other hand, I once had trouble repeatedly failing a
| German lesson so I gave the phone to my German girlfriend.
| She failed the lesson too, probably because she was
| answering as a German and not as a Duolingo user.
| bdcravens wrote:
| > anything that gamifies passive consumption, e.g. Duolingo
|
| I took 4 1/2 years of Spanish in high school and college, and I
| feel like I've learned more in 60 days on Duolingo.
| petercooper wrote:
| It's not news or anything but _Strides_ has probably given me the
| greatest quality of life boost this year. It 's a pretty simple
| app where you list habits you want to foster and you then mark
| them off each day (or are reminded to do so when you don't).
| Keeping up streaks of certain good habits has done me a lot of
| good the past few months :-)
| turtlebits wrote:
| Finding alternatives to screens is probably a good start. You
| don't need to toss your phone, just put it farther away from you.
| Have books/magazines/newspapers with easy access as an
| alternative. Legos/brain teasers/puzzles/rubix cubes, etc are
| also great.
| hoseja wrote:
| PlantNET, BirdNET, kiwix a good sensor readout and a map. Use the
| tool, don't be used by it :)
| wruza wrote:
| Using attention-consuming apps in a toilet is not healthy (trust
| me I know).
| muzani wrote:
| I've just been using Instagram as a place to browse art. I think
| you can't really unfollow toxic people (you technically can but
| your brain won't let you). But what you can do is flood it out
| with positive vibes.
|
| My Instagram feed is full of e-commerce memes, AI generated art,
| and hand drawn dungeon maps.
|
| It's not exactly _useful_ but it keeps me inspired for the next
| day.
| lahirurlt wrote:
| Plug for a related project I'm working on: mixgrid.io
| eastbayjake wrote:
| Tangential but what are your favorite e-commerce meme accounts?
| jrumbut wrote:
| Pages on any social media associated with the US National Parks
| (the department and the parks themselves) are very nice
| looking, promote healthy activities, and are mildly educational
| (and give you some positive rabbit holes to go down, like
| identifying plants or birdwatching).
| Chio wrote:
| I've taken the opposite approach a lot of times. So instead of
| asking what you can add you might want to look at what apps /
| bookmarks that you can remove. Do you need a link to the reddit
| frontpage, or can you narrow it down to one or two specific
| subreddits that you want to check, or maybe remove it entirely if
| it does not add much value to your daily life.
|
| Apps that I would recommend however are many of the apps that
| tries to gamify physical activity. I use Garmin, but I am not
| sure if the app works without owning the accompanying smart
| watches and there are plenty of alternatives, and the
| gamification and accountability that it offers around physical
| activity makes it a lot easier to get out of the door (which is
| always the hard part). Physical activity has long been known to
| have a huge positive effect on mental capacity and health so well
| worth spending an hour or so every day on.
| NalNezumi wrote:
| Not apps but things that have helped me:
|
| * remove All notifications from non-message & Calendar apps.
|
| * condition everyone around you that you might not reply messages
| in time. (crucial to make above work) and ofc you have to follow
| that too.
|
| * (if you have the financial means) get another device without
| ANY distraction what so ever, ideally disconnected from the
| internet (except maybe syncing files) For me it is a e-ink
| (android) tablet.
|
| >I'm looking for some apps that people use and get genuine value
| out of. Can I learn something while I'm bored on the couch?
|
| For me it's not about finding some app that helps me with this; I
| already have a backlog (bookmarks, pdf, tutorials) of stuff I
| genuinely want to consume yet I end up always scouring for _new_
| content, even with the gigantic backlog.
|
| There's rarely any lack of quantity in content these days,
| quality maybe, but that's the fallacy that lead us to look for
| more/newer content rather than consuming the ones we've already
| identified.
|
| So having a dedicated device for "consuming backlog" and
| minimizing adding more stuff to it have been a good change.
| medo-bear wrote:
| > condition everyone around you that you might not reply
| messages in time
|
| i would add turning off read-receipts if possible in your
| message apps, as well as online notifications, and last seen
| Arrath wrote:
| I've always felt that these were needlessly invasive, going
| back to online/away indicators in early IM programs.
| Swizec wrote:
| +1 to this. Getting a reMarkable has improved my "Actually read
| interesting papers" metric by infinite%. I went from bookmark
| and forget to reading at least 1 paper per week on average.
|
| Turns out published academic papers, even the bad ones, are
| infinitely better than even the most insightful twitter
| threads.
|
| Years ago I replaced podcasts with audiobooks for long runs.
| Podcasts started feeling too short. That's been a huge
| improvement as well.
|
| This week I stopped listening to podcasts on my way to the gym.
| That's 20 minutes of thinking time per day. Fantastic so far. I
| feel a lot more relaxed.
| Yujf wrote:
| I looked at reMarkable and it seems cool, except that they
| push subscription models that I really can't get behind.
| crimsoneer wrote:
| How easy is it to get papers on? Do you email the PDFs or
| similar?
| Swizec wrote:
| It syncs over wifi. There's a windows/mac/ios app that you
| can drop files into and they show up on your reMarkable.
|
| There's even a chrome extension that lets you click a
| button and the page shows up on the tablet in epub form
| (which unfortunately doesn't do images). You have to print-
| to-pdf then dump into the app to get a webpage with images
| onto the tablet. That part's kind of annoying, but many
| articles work just fine as epub.
| dangom wrote:
| drag and drop on the app and they sync.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| > * remove All notifications from non-message & Calendar apps.
|
| Absolutely this. Most chat and social apps have no
| notifications for me. and if any other app sends me
| notifications that aren't really relevant to me as an
| individual, then it gets muted too.
|
| But additionally! The "screen time" controls on iOS actually do
| an even better job at muting notifications, including in apps
| whose notifications that I never bothered to control as
| meticulously. Screen time limits the time that an app is
| available for you that day, I have entire categories of apps
| down to "15 minutes" with news apps set to 30 minutes a day.
| The additional unexpected benefit is that this also disables
| notifications while those apps are blocked for the rest of the
| day.
| princevegeta89 wrote:
| Exactly. Notifications are such a waste of time. And from apps
| you don't care about, I've always disabled them. No more Google
| Maps asking for surveys, random apps throwing promotions, or
| spamming me about some recent activity of mine.
| SamuelAdams wrote:
| Also use grayscale. I use an iPhone so go to settings >
| accessibility > Accessibility shortcut and tap the color
| filters option.
|
| Now triple clicking the side button will toggle greyscale.
| Disable it when you want to look at photos, enable greyscale
| for all other applications.
| time_to_smile wrote:
| Nearly every app in existence exists to profit off of you in some
| why. By nature it is hard for them to ever make your well being
| their aim. This is a reason I've stopped to working for direct to
| consumer companies, in the end you always end up scheming with
| your PM to figure out a way to screw over your users while
| humming a tune about how much you love your customers. Because of
| the raw numbers of customers, it almost never makes sense to do
| what is really right for them while doing what's also right for
| your bottom line.
|
| In the last few months I have aggressively reduced my time online
| and replaced it with reading books of all sorts.
|
| Part of this was a deliberate attempt to ween myself off an
| increasingly toxic online world. But the other part was that for
| learning technical topics the web has become a heaping pile of
| garbage. It used to be you could find some great insights on even
| advanced subjects, but now searching a topic make it more likely
| for me to find _incorrect_ insights.
|
| So my advice is: If there's a topic you like chatting about
| online, order some books on that subject. If you want to relax,
| start reading more fiction. And aggressively start building out a
| library of technical/text books (used is pretty cheap), so that
| you can start browsing your own "web" of useful content instead
| of content marketing created trash.
|
| You can read on the toilet, that's what people used to do back in
| the 90s and before!
| PopAlongKid wrote:
| >You can read on the toilet, that's what people used to do back
| in the 90s and before!
|
| That is a bad idea, according to my doctor and my own
| experience. Ideally for the long term health of your sphincter,
| you should try to get on, take your dump, and get off the
| toilet in just a few minutes total. I used to keep a stack of
| magazines next to my toilet but gave that up years ago and am
| glad I did.
| ericmay wrote:
| > I'm in a battle to minimize social media and related apps
| influence over my life.
|
| Get rid of the social media apps. You don't need them. You're
| lying to yourself if you think that you do. Nobody is going to
| miss your Instagram or Facebook posts. TikTok is a stupid waste
| of time and likely algorithmically programmed to make you hate
| your country (why we let China ban our social media apps and then
| let them operate in our country I'll never understand) and Reddit
| is a cesspool of awful, uninformed opinions and if you really
| need to visit a special interest community there you can just
| visit that manually. You don't need an account and you don't have
| anything interesting to say so there's no reason to post.
|
| Instead, fill your home screen with apps with positive goals. For
| me, this includes having Downdog, btwb, Fitness (Apple),
| Wikipedia, Maps, my local newspaper, and similar style apps with
| all red dot notifications turned off.
|
| > But I need to sell things on Facebook marketplace so I'll have
| to keep my account.
|
| No. Use eBay or Craigslist, sell it at a yardsale, or stop buying
| stuff you don't need. If you can't stomach that then you delete
| your actual Facebook account and create a new one specifically
| for marketplace.
|
| > But how will I stay in touch with all of these groups and
| influencers that I follow who post entertaining content?
|
| You won't. That's the point. Otherwise stop stressing about being
| addicted to social media and just embrace it. There's no
| separation of "people I like to follow" and "I feel addicted".
| You cannot have one without the other.
|
| > I'm going to lose touch with friends and family.
|
| Good. People come and go, including close friends and family
| members. And if the primary way you stay in touch is social
| media, well, you're just lying to yourself about your
| relationship with them. Let it go. It's unhealthy to cling to
| past relationships.
|
| > Yea but I _do_ stay in touch but I also like to see their new
| baby pictures
|
| Well great, instead of seeing all of this stuff beforehand, just
| see them in person like you regularly do and ask them to show you
| pictures and then you can sit down and have a meaningful
| interaction.
|
| Yes I understand that HackerNews and LinkedIn and other sites
| that I use are also social media. There are degrees of
| addictiveness. I don't believe you can only "minimize" top social
| media apps. They _do_ provide value to a lot of people, but if
| you feel that you 're being pulled away from your real life and
| you're literally posting asking how to win the battle over social
| media apps and their influence, the best thing you can do is
| start disengaging with the most addicting ones.
|
| Some people can buy a bag of M&Ms and eat just one and put the
| bag down. Most people can't.
| jnovek wrote:
| "Get rid of the social media apps."
|
| A middle road I've used is to restrict myself to the browser
| versions of social media. The user experience is so frustrating
| that I don't want to stick around, I just check on what people
| are up to once or twice per week.
| ljw1001 wrote:
| Merlin. The bird identifier app from Cornell. Take some time to
| stop and smell the birds.
| pSYoniK wrote:
| Thought I'd be an outlier here, but the themes in the comments
| resonate with what my 2 cents would be.
|
| The biggest change was moving to a phone that ditches all Google
| Play services. This included microG and other variations. The
| only play services emulator that is running is
| https://github.com/lukaspieper/Gcam-Services-Provider, which
| doesn't do anything really but simulate the presence of google
| services for the google camera to work. You can navigate the
| source, it's really short. I use it to get the Google Camera
| working.
|
| I got a Pixel 2 a couple of years back and more recently a Pixel
| 4a. Then I installed Graphene OS (you can run that or Calyx OS,
| people might get into heated discussions, but for the purpose of
| this, you would install either of them with nothing Google
| related anyway, it's just whatever is completely stock and
| barebones).
|
| Once you're at this point, you are forced to change your
| behavior, so the choice goes from "which of these apps should I
| use as there are SOOOO many of them" to "which apps do I need to
| add to the phone". After a few months I'm down to:
|
| Signal, Fennec, Aegis, Mullvad, Tutanota, Termux, Unlauncher,
| Gcam port for my phone, Organic Maps, Syncthing. The background
| is black, the font is red. A big shoutout to all the persons
| working hard on all of these applications, do support them
| through donations or any help you can give them btw.
|
| To get here I had at a point microG, google maps, YT Vanced,
| Dropbox and the usual slew of things, but I still kept picking up
| my phone and scrolling mindlessly. I think this is the first
| thing you should do. I know people might suggest going outside,
| watching movies, subscribing to your favorite blogs and other
| things like that, but the reality is, you need to change the
| association you make with your phone first. This goes for all
| your devices btw, not just your phone. It needs to revert back to
| being a tool that obediently sits somewhere away from you and is
| picked up to perform a specific task and then put down again.
| Constant entertainment shouldn't be our goal in general, but I
| digress.
|
| Once you get the change (you can pick up older Pixels pretty
| cheap used - which is also great for the environment btw!), the
| next step is to look up 3-4 sources of information (I go with 2
| or 3 that lean the same way I do politically and 1 that is the
| complete opposite) and assign let's say an hour in the morning or
| one in the evening when you might go through those articles.
|
| I afterwards realized that nothing really changes by me going to
| several places to look up things. It doesn't matter if you read
| about something on CNN/Fox/The Guardian/The Atlantic/BBC/Al
| Jazeera, at the end of the day, it happened and 5-10-20-40
| different sources will really talk about the same event. Will
| this event impact you? Probably not. If it does, i'd recommend
| you look for a source of news that's closes to you
| geographically, they might have some more localized insight.
| Chances are if cycling legislation changes in Berkeley, a local
| website/paper might have more relevant information than Al
| Jazeera (which, chances are, won't cover that event anyway). So
| this was the next step, once you start weaning yourself off of
| the endlessly repeating news cycle, look for something closer to
| you. Maybe at this point, you can do a quick read over some of
| the big topics once a week - how's the humanitarian crisis in
| Yemen? Is there anything you can do to help (pressure your
| elected officials/gov/etc, join an NGO and help that way)? This
| is, in my view, essential to being a good citizen. Once that's
| done, you can check maybe what happened locally, which will,
| invariably, impact your life to a greater degree than what
| happens half-way across the world.
|
| First of all, congrats you're still here, you're doing well!
|
| At this point I check HN a couple of times a day (this is one of
| those occasions), I look for anything that I'm interested in, try
| to limit it to 2-3 articles and that's me. This whole process
| probably took around 5-6 months from start to finish. The slower
| you go along with it, the better chance things will stick. I feel
| a lot better now than I did a few years ago when I was one of
| those people with a couple of screens of apps. I have more time,
| I look up what I'm interested in, I feel more connected to my
| local community and my local government. I have time to research
| a topic I'm interested in with greater focus instead of being
| devoured by a slew of panic inducing titles or gifs/videos that
| keep me scrolling endlessly.
|
| We (and here I mean most tech/knowledge workers) are stuck in
| front of screens all day... We should by now have figured out
| that when they aren't helping you, they are DEMANDING your
| attention and they give very little in return. So the best
| mentally healthy apps are those that you don't use. Those that
| you uninstall and those that give you time back. Sorry for the
| long rant, hope it helps!
| anyfactor wrote:
| Wikipedia front page is pretty good. They have a news section
| too.
| thex10 wrote:
| Libby, if you're a member of your local library and it supports
| borrowing books through it.
| Konterstein wrote:
| There are no mentally healthy apps to have. You also have to
| enforce any rules you make and are always already in a fight that
| you cannot loose. The smartphone is net negative on mental
| health. I would only make arguments that you can get distracted
| really easily if you are too focused on something bad. Like today
| if you become a stalker you really need to be ill because there
| is so much distraction with the phone that it's hard to see
| someone healthy become a stalker.
|
| My solution is to do activities where you don't have your
| smartphone. Something like swimming or riding your bike is great.
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| If they're as bad as you're saying (and I'm not sure I
| disagree) then the answer would be to go back to a flip phone
| that only does calls and maybe has a camera.
| hycaria wrote:
| Yeah it's still pretty nice to have navigation
| Tade0 wrote:
| > I'm in a battle to minimize social media and related apps
| influence over my life.
|
| What worked for me is getting into the most stupid internet
| arguments possible.
|
| The dread associated with seeing the notification indicator show
| new replies is keeping me off Facebook for now.
| human_person wrote:
| Libby - endless ebooks from your local library Zotero - I save
| interesting papers I come across to Zotero and then read them
| when I have free time. C25K - I hate running. I've probably
| restarted this a dozen times over the past 5 yrs but the ease of
| the first few workouts makes it easier for me to restart when I
| stop exercising for a few weeks.
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