One thing that has been working really well for me this year is the "internet Shabbat" rule: 24 hours of no TCP/IP every week. Friday night I pull the plug on the modem + turn off data on my phone, then enjoy all of Saturday in a disconnected mode. I can still be on the computer, just no internet.
It's amazing how much things I get done... it literally feels like I have two days instead of one. If I put a item like "outdoor exercise for 30 mins" in my TODO list, then I actually do it! Close friends and family can still reach me by phone/text, but all the chat groups and other messaging app distractions are silent.
I can still end up zoning out watching a movie in the evening, but it's more intentional: I had to pick the movie in advance and download it so I can view it offline.
The contrast with Sunday when I turn the internet back on is very notable. Suddenly the next day is disorganized and end up wasting hours on youtube recommendations, and following rabit holes, and hacker news of course.
My conclusion is that it's not the apps or the internet, it's the feeds (when information is being pushed down to you) that are the problem. It's just too convenient and we end up staying in it.
I used to do this every morning, for the first hour of the day.
I started doing it to cope with severe unmedicated ADHD. I found the only way I could get any work done was to turn off my phone and unplug the router.
(I downloaded offline docs, and if I got really stuck, made a note of what to Google later and just switched tasks.)
I then found that I enjoyed getting stuff done so much, that I'd usually keep it off until after lunch.
I was thinking of scaling this up by adding Sunday too, but offline mornings might be even better... I'll look into adding a schedule in the router. I think it might be helpful to program the rule to start in the desired bedtime in the evening to make the pixel devices unexciting and incentivize reading old school books (the most efficient technology for getting me to sleep).
I've heard the advice don't touch the phone/email first thing in the morning so many times, but I can never stick to it, but if my "habit" is enforced at the network layer, I think it is doable ;)
UPDATE: Apparently iOS has a built in automation tool Shortcuts app, which allowed me to schedule this, see https://imgur.com/a/TsQJak3 I added similar rulesets to the router. Watch out world, Ivan's productivity is going to skyrocket!
Oh yes, forgot to mention. I started doing it as a sleep hygiene thing (internet off before bedtime) then realized it carries over elegantly into "deep work" in the morning :)
You definitely want the right choice to already have been made for you, in terms of device/net hygiene, when you stumble out of bed, bleary eyed!
I implemented offline mornings and have learned Greek, how to play chess half decently, and how to play the piano! It’s crazy how much time there is in the morning that I was wasting.
I'm going to pivot into being a full-time techno shabbas goy if this movement gets large enough. I'll join the legions of dog-walkers and apartment-sitters.
Or just go hang out with friends, that's what I do. I get to hang out with people I like, people I like a little less, people I agree with, people I disagree with it. It makes me for a more humble and understanding person.
I'm living on my own now so I don't have experience with the group version of this.
I try to be proactive if I know I'm meeting someone to remind them to call/text and not expect Signal/Telegram comms. The only thing that has been a problem are RCS text messages since my iPhone assumes if RCS was used once to communicate with someone, it should always be used. I can manually use "send as SMS" for outgoing, but I don't get the reply.
It's not like TikTok has a 100% chance of hypnotizing you into a zombie that can only spend its waking hours thinking about dancing people and positive vibes. Only a very high chance, depending on how anxious/bored you are, amplified by the hard work of psychology PhDs.
It's so difficult to imagine the mindset of a person who can approach TikTok from a healthy perspective and not need to rely on what used to be called "parental controls" in the past to artificially prevent them from doomscrolling all day. They would just never need to consume advice like this. Surely those people must exist? Who are they?
But when you're slapped with something like C-PTSD from an early age, you aren't afforded the ability to address anxiety effectively. You have to turn to something to soothe your anxiety all the time or it will drive you insane.
If you were to try to go the complete or semi-aesetic route, you have to consider what lies on the other side of doomscrolling when there's just too much anxiety to function correctly: endless hellfire.
I have a hard time believing doomscrolling or needing to restrict screentime at every corner are effective ways to address a completely unrelated inbuilt source of boundless anxiety.
Something minor that I found to greatly impact my screen usage was to remove all the icons from my phone so that I am forced to search for the app. That minor bit of friction was able to reduce my habitual usage by 70~80%
I've been doing a lot of mindfulness meditation lately, and also learning about self soothing, emotional processing etc.
I found that now that I can access blissful and peaceful states at will, and deal with difficult emotions without getting overwhelmed, my "need" for compulsive behaviors has dropped massively. There's no longer so much pain to medicate.
It's like you say, we use this stuff because we don't know a better way.
As for social media, there's also the systemic issue of atomization in modern society. People spend so much time alone now, so that's another great pain to cope with.
How does one get started? I've been doing 20 minute wim hof breathing sessions that help and I've been looking into TM due to David Lynch but nothing beyond reading.
I use Insight Timer. The daily streak feature helped me finally make it a habit, after half assing it for many years.
When starting it can be helpful to use guided meditations. There's a bunch in that app (mostly free), and on YouTube of course.
I like Shinzen Young's videos and audiobooks, he takes a very grounded, "technical" approach to this stuff.
My main "lessons learned":
- Do it every day, even if just a few minutes. Makes a huge difference.
- Make awareness broad. This takes practice, it's like a muscle. I made the mistake of making it narrow like a laser, which is much harder, less stable, and less useful! i.e. learn to hold 2, then 3 objects in mind "at the same time". e.g. the breath, and the birds outside, and the "sense of space" of the room.
The classic meditation object is the breath. In my case, that brought up a lot of emotional pain. It's fine to use other objects in that case (though eventually you can learn to integrate / heal the emotions too), e.g. focus on sounds or anything "grounding".
Not OP, but seeing a therapist, journaling, breathing exercises, and spending time lingering outside (e.g. walking), helped me regulate emotions and access peaceful states. Anxiety is the source of lots of problems for me, including doomscrolling, and unmanaged thoughts and feelings are a big source of anxiety for me. So once I learned some techniques for tending to those thoughts and feelings (instead of ignoring them), everything got a bit better.
So I guess keep reading, keep breathing, find more techniques that help you, and consider finding a professional if you need more help.
I’m very social. I don’t think I miss much notification of “stuff to do”
( signal groups : large groups hitting the 1000 member limit. With drastic moderations. Example : only music flyer. Anything else is deleted under minutes )
I don't think that's a worthwhile challenge. Either you fail and get addicted, or you succeed and... what? Spend some of your free time watching low quality micro videos and being advertised to by teenagers? I don't see the upside here.
It's less a challenge and more that there are people who are consumers/creators on TikTok and can limit their usage to under an hour a day without needing to use time restrictions. The question is what aspect of their personality/mindset/upbringing enables this relative to someone unable to inhibit their urge to compulsively use social media.
Another tip is that even HN has some screen time features. If you go to your profile, you can play around with the "noprocrast", "maxvisit", and "minaway" options.
When noprocrast is on, you may only view HN for maxvisit minutes at a time, and must stay away for minaway minutes before returning. (taken from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3677504)
I find that it's hard to waste time on HN after your first salvo of the day since the day's frontpage topics are kinda set early on and they change pretty slowly. (Unless, of course, someone is wrong about one of Your Topics and needs your corrections throughout the day.)
And I don't see the point of going past the frontpage unless you want to bicker with someone on yesterday's topics that nobody will ever see. So just get it out of the way early.
— Suddenly selfaware guy who realizes he writes 5 comments a day on HN, kinda like a fat guy giving you weightloss tips. You see, the trick is to not moderate your intake at all.
Well, all of us are full of crap thinking that we can resolve our screen time problem by talking to people through this screen thing.
But hey, since I’m here, I’m gonna give it my shot at hypocrisy as well: something worth looking into is how to feel OK with yourself not reaching for the screen compulsively. On your own, with your thoughts
> I find that it's hard to waste time on HN after your first salvo of the day since the day's frontpage topics are kinda set early on and they change pretty slowly.
Here in GMT+2, there's the morning salvo - and then an afternoon salvo once the USA is properly caffeinated.
Title talks about screentime, but article only focuses on mobile phones and doom scrolling.
I was surprised to see the recommendation of max 2h screen time per day for an adult at the bottom. The link leads to a page not mentioning this though.
I spend already ~5h staring at screens for work.
At home my biggest screen time is watching videos on TV.
I don't think I ever doom-scrolled on my phone. I do read lots of news articles on it though.
Article seems to not be addressing people like me.
When I’m doom scrolling it’s almost exclusively news. I’m not all that interested in short videos, social media, or other scrollable things. News is my weakness. Last month I was pretty bad about reading news about the USA. I’ve mostly recovered. It’s easy to convince yourself it matters (especially compared to watching shorts) but the reality is that for me, it’s bordering irrelevant. I live in Canada. There’s nothing I can do about the USA. Just focus on what’s here and now.
After a Psilocybin trip I found that anxiety was driving a vast majority of my desire for screen time. Post trip for the next few days my mind was perfectly calm - no thoughts were forcefully intruding, constantly causing distraction and frustration leading to seeking screen time.
During that time I could go to work, consume tasks, complete them without stress or distraction and feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. Same when I went home and did chores around the house. That is a feeling that has been elusive most of my life. The big thing that stood out to me those few days: little to no desire for screen time.
If you think you have anxiety then do yourself a favor and seek professional help. Otherwise these life hacks are useless as they are ignoring the root cause of your desire for screen time.
This is a great point. It’s talked about in a book called Indistractabke. The author talks about trying to get rid of his phone during the day and even moving to a flip phone. But other nonsense just takes its place.
It’s essentially like being a dry drunk. You need something else to replace the alcohol or you just trade alcoholism for something else.
Been there, done that. Listen to the person above me.
I tried to do that in the past when I my depression was more severe. I thought that'd help me, but I replaced staring at my screen with staring at wall or just sleeping.
On top of that, which is absolutely true, saying "listen to the person above me" (instead of something along the lines of "guys/to anyone reading this, listen to...") while replying directly to someone makes it seem like you're exhorting them--that you're advising them to look for some other reply that runs counter to their point, instead of addressing the general HN crowd. "I thought that'd help me, but..." also seems to counter their point further instead of agreeing with it.
Yes, exactly. I had no idea what to do with myself, and thus all I did was browsed Internet. I thought that getting rid of it will "fix" me (to be honest, I think I confused cause and effect). And so, I tried.
But I had nothing to replace this with, and I didn't magically became a disciplined or productive person. And then I would go back to my bad habits, just feeling even stronger self-hatred.
I didn't, honestly. In the end, it was just a gradual step for me. I got more things to do, I became slightly more social, talked to more and more people, and it just happened. I still deal with it, just on a lesser scale where it's managable unless I have a bad day - in which case again I'll turn to screens for comfort. But it's rare.
At least on iOS, I've found ScreenZen (https://www.screenzen.co) to be pretty ideal. I'll definitely try SpeedBump if they add me to the beta, though.
Like SpeedBump, ScreenZen also has a "wait before using addictive apps" function (though, it doesn't have the "wait a bit longer to get 15mins vs. 2mins" - that would be really nice).
ScreenZen also keeps track of "streaks" of days not going over your overall limit in addictive apps. Unfortunately, that limit is counted by number of sessions, not the actual overall app screen time (by default, if you set your limit to 1 hour, it gives you 6 sessions of 10 minutes per app). It would be nice to combine this with SpeedBump's different-time-limit feature: if I want to quickly check a post or show a friend something on Instagram, I could use only 2mins out of my overall hour limit, instead of 10mins.
My cell phone lives in my sock drawer with the only exception being when I take it out for GPS. Otherwise, I have fully replaced my mobile computing with my Daylight Computer tablet. I feel like I have a much healthier relationship with this thing than I had with my cell phone. The lack of color and the lack of notifications has made my usage feel way more intentional. Before, I wanted to kick my habit of scrolling social media before I got out of bed in the morning, but I didn't actively work on that. One day, I simply realized I had kicked the habit without even trying!
Not having a phone on me at all times to cope with boring or awkward moments has really been eye opening, and I believe very healthy for me. Especially as someone who has had a phone on me for my teenage years and throughout most of my adult life thus far.
The issue then wasn't phone specifically, but social media apps installed there. I have phone at home around on the desk (but then again not always sitting by it), but since having 0 social apps its just a tool for emails, calls, whatsapp, navigation etc. and I quickly check it maybe every 1-2h for new emails/calls and thats it.
I still check FB on desktop from time to time if somebody close doesn't have anything interesting, but that is 1-3 mins max. FB has a very hostile UI on desktop these days (Firefox and ublock origin) and a lot of bugs on their sites, so I quickly get disgusted and close it.
The best part is, it completely refreshes whole timeline with new stuff every few mins, so anything I was just reading just blips out of existence, never to be seen again. So even if I manage to stay 3 mins it literally kicks me out. Thanx FB.
Another issue with that social media (don't use any other, why ffs its all mind cancer) is being overflooded with fake AI generated bullshit posts full of half truths and outright lies. Normally via suggested groups, cesspool of scum. So I have no idea what friends actually do, and not missing it.
The only other e-paper device that I had was a small nook many years ago. As far as connecting with people, I think quite well? The only social media I really use is bluesky, which has been really nice. Otherwise I keep in touch with my meatspace friends either over SMS (I use JMP Chat for SMS over XMPP on any device) or Signal (I use the molly.im client, which is easier to use without a cell phone (particularly because you can't scan QR codes on the Daylight)).
Ironically I actually feel like I experience far less FOMO than when I was hyper connected too :P
I have always had trouble keeping on top of email, but probably as good as anything? I don't use a Bluetooth keyboard, but I use a USB keyboard (ZSA Voyager) and a Bluetooth mouse (Logitech MX Anywhere 3S) and it works well for me. For some reason I have to re-pair the mouse often, but I think that's on the mouse side. My headphones have no trouble staying paired.
Earlier this year, I decided to set up a couple of software based systems to reduce my screentime. They have been largely been successful. I have reduced my average daily phone screen time from 5-6 hrs to 2-3 hrs, around 1.5 hrs of which is 'wasteful' (reddit, HN, instagram) and the remaining 1.5 hrs is actual communication time (email, calls, chat). On my computer, my screen time is nearly all productive time by my standards. Some of the things I did are:
For my phone:
- Deleted all apps for social media, all browsing has to be via browser.
- Used SocialFocus (https://socialfocus.app/) to remove feeds and recommendations from all apps, any post access happens via shares or search
- Also turned on a timer for social media (45 minutes each for reddit/insta).
- Turned social media black/white instead of color.
- Used dumbify launcher (https://dumbifyapp.com/) to turn my menu bar into a text based one instead of icons.
- Locked up my Cold Turkey block with a long random text string, which increases friction if I want to unlock and as a result reduces my inclination to do so.
Honestly, these steps have worked quite well for me thus far. I have managed to get back into reading (both fiction, non-fiction as well as academic textbooks), freed up time to spend with family and friends, and also gotten into watching TV shows - something I had not really done in the last 2-3 years due to being hooked on short form media
> Completely quitting social media is getting less and less realistic. Platforms like Instagram or TikTok can be essential to connect with friends
I doubt it. Trying to not to use all of popular social for some time (for 30 days) was inspiring to me, so I don't have any idea why those apps so important.
Which Android apps for limiting screen time does the HN crowd recommend? Is there one that doesn't sell your data or request network access? (Ideally of course the app would be open-source but I'm not getting my hopes up.)
I've been wanting to try Digital Wellbeing but it looks like it's still not available for non-Google devices. Or at least it's shown as "not compatible" when accessing the Play Store from GrapheneOS.
It doesn't limit apps, it just displays your screen time in a permanent notification and allows you to view and export past statistics.
I've found that to be very effective. From a systems perspective, it amounts to adding a new feedback loop, similar to this leverage point described by Donella Meadows[1]:
There was this subdivision of identical houses, the story goes, except that for some reason the electric meter in some of the houses was installed in the basement and in others it was installed in the front hall, where the residents could see it constantly, going round faster or slower as they used more or less electricity. With no other change, with identical prices, electricity consumption was 30 percent lower in the houses where the meter was in the front hall.
We systems-heads love that story because it’s an example of a high leverage point in the information structure of the system. It’s not a parameter adjustment, not a strengthening or weakening of an existing loop. It’s a NEW LOOP, delivering feedback to a place where it wasn’t going before.
Thanks! That app looks quite nice (especially the virtualization) but I already know how much I use my phone (too much :)) and that obtrusive feedback will only get me so far. So I do need an app that goes a bit further and allows me to track & block usage of applications.
I set up a basic SQL table where I record the time spent on my phone (and other devices) based on the screen time data from StayFree (Android), and a little private webpage with a line chart and average statistics.
It's pretty manual (2-3 mins per week), but logging the new dates each week is a nice little "check-in" to stop me from drifting back towards more screen time.
I've never been a heavy user, but I noticed sometimes I drifted towards 1-2 hours per day and have since gotten down to an average of less than 15 minutes per day. I just use the phone for utility purpose now. I got scared straight seeing the UK average daily phone use statistics, including my own, and how much that adds up to over a year.
Digital Wellbeing was quite good but I noticed it counts things which aren't necessarily screen time. I kept having loads of time on the 'Clock' app for some reason, and spam calls I ignore seemed to also be counted even if I saw them on my watch.
As for the phone setup itself:
- no media apps (social, games, video, news)
- a web browser, but I try to just remember anything I'm interested in and look it up later on a PC
- absolute minimum notifications. phone, sms, email and messages (Signal/WhatsApp). I try to use only for emergencies or quick messages and meetups instead of having conversations over messages
- minimal launcher (Nova) with black and white icons
- no blocks, just screen time monitoring using StayFree. I don't want to use blocks as a crutch
Side note: Are you blocking StayFree from accessing the network? Their ToS make it rather clear that they will collect & share all possible data they can get their hands on.
I'm not sure if I am or not. If it's not too much of a write-up, how might I be able to check? Is this something that can be changed in phone settings?
Thanks for letting me know. I wasn't aware of this otherwise.
- Yes it is possible to live without using social media (except hacker news of course) on a daily basis. TikTok is the easiest to do without. Instagram and Snapchat can be deleted. Use the web app for those rare moments you need to check hours for a business that doesn’t have a website (sadly this happens)
- iOS Focus Modes is underrated in this article. When I arrive at work all my apps except teams and outlook disappear, my phone turns into a work dashboard. After work my phone shows my journal and the clock app. I never get notifications at work, they queue up until I leave. My watch is synchronized and does similar, showing exactly what I need and nothing else for different stages of my day. Focus Modes has sadly not been copied by Android so I can’t consider stitching until there’s a good answer (a well supported HealthKit alternative being the other deal breaker).
- iOS screen time is busted af, it is known. Might as well be a random number generator. I recommend avoiding. Apple workers reading this: pls fix
I have gone in a slightly different direction, where I use my device to sell goods and services, and aquire parts,components, and specific information to facilitate my selling, and the maintanence and upgradeing of my own personal things.
Also I use my screen time to seek out real world events and activities.
This has led me to have expectations, as to what I get, as a real reward, and, also forces me to
follow through with comitments made on line, in the real.world, therfor the whole thing, becomes self regualating.
Ha, I do the same for most advertised things. It is as advertised. I've easily gained back more of my time than the $59 that it costs. Game changer if you make a habit to "brick" your phone every morning.
I also made an app to fix my scrolling issue — it’s called EvoCat.
The idea came from wanting to combine the best parts of all the focus apps I used: scheduled block sessions like Opal, mindful breathing interruptions like One Sec, and some light gamification to make it feel less like punishment.
EvoCat is a small animated character (a cat-phone hybrid) that evolves as you stay focused. The longer you avoid distractions, the stronger it becomes — and the harder it gets to cancel your focus sessions. It turns screen time control into something a bit more playful, but still effective.
I currently have a beta available on iOS and I’m happy to share a TestFlight link if anyone wants to try it out.
You can also check it out here: https://evocat.app
Would love feedback from fellow builders and focus-app nerds :)
Great article! I’ve noticed that most screen time discussions focus heavily on mobile usage, which makes sense given the data, but I think we underestimate how much desktop screen time also affects our health.
As someone who’s been building LookAway[0] (a mindful break reminder app for Mac), I’ve seen firsthand how easy it is to slip into hours of continuous screen time at a desk resulting in things like eye strain, posture issues, and even productivity dips.
Would love to see more awareness and tools around managing desktop screen habits!
Look, why should it be the individual consumer or their parents who regulate screen time when it’s not our fault?
Computers have become an unprecedented scourge and curse to our attention, our moods and our very souls, but radio, telephone, and TV led up to this.
It is time that the architects of consumer communications technology took responsibility for the utter grind and drain they’re causing us in every waking hour--literally--because these days, my smartphone knows exactly when I begin to stir in the morning and dumps a fresh deluge of pings before I can make it to the bathroom...
Radio and TV had discrete programmes. Either you were there, or forget any watching in years except a rerun, if there was any. Yes, they were recordings in vynil, cassetes and whatnot, but these were not cheap.
Nowadays, you can, you know, just download narrated podcasts, ebooks from
Gutenberg, free PD audiobooks...
Listen to some stories in silence, on your bed, at night. Let your brain imagine the story. You don't even need an internet connection at all. Download them at your library, listen them at home.
On news, RSS feeds. Feeder on Android (and any good client under Linux too) has access to full content, you don't need to be online to read the news.
The Conversation and Science Alert have the whole news in their feed. Use Feeder, and while you add a feed, don't forget to check the 'get the whole content' option or similar.
Now you will be able to read news offline. No alerts, no dopamine, no useless bullshit, no bait 'news', no nothing.
The Conversation has curated articles from major sections (Science, Health, Culture, Environment, Economy, Politics).
Everything else it's just boring propaganda -from all sides- to polarize and scare you like hell so you are rendered a zombie customer.
Science Alert it's that, Scientific News, popular science.
If The Conversation Science feed feels bland to you, here your have.
Since everyone is rattling off their own solutions.
* I removed all apps that aren't tools/utilities to help me get things done. No entertainment (including RSS!). For example, I have Busycal, Things, and Bear installed along with a few other utilities. I also removed non-essential utilities. There is no need to pay my credit card from my phone. This also has the benefit of reducing tracking.
* Disabled JS for Safari. I would find myself surfing the web and wasting time. Even if I initially started with good intentions. Turns out, a lot of my web usage was "I wonder about this, let's search it". "That was a cool movie, let's see what other people think online". It is an absolute pain to dig 37 menus deep to enable JS again, which forces me to live without it.
* Time limits never worked for me. I'd always ask for five more minutes. Just one more hit Tim Apple, I promise. Last time. They may work for you though.
* Either disabled notifications or set them to appear in daily reviews. Now I get those daily reviews and realize it's filled with stuff that doesn't matter. Every time I pick up my phone I risk falling into a black hole. The less I'm notified to pick up it, the less time I lose. Only alerts from my partner and similar get through immediately.
* Get an alarm clock or use a smartwatch. Seriously. You know those people who wake up and reach over for cigs before they're even out of bed? Don't do that with your phone.
* I lean heavily into my smart watch. For me, trying to create friction on my phone was only mildly successful. A smart watch has a ton of organic friction that feels natural. Instead of giving your Ferarri a flat tire to slow it down, just ride a bicycle. Synthetic friction vs organic friction. I'm bad with analogies. Leaving my phone behind is something I do sometimes but not as much as I should.
* These days the only social media account I have is HN. It's not ideal but everything is a WIP.
There really should be some concerted effort by the government to study these behaviors and what can be done. We dramatically dropped cigarette use with a lot of work and I believe we can do the same with phones.
I still waste time on my laptop but it's not a quick dopamine hit. I spend more time on side-projects though now that I'm forcing myself to be in front of a real machine. Reducing all screen-time is something I still need to work on.
"No more doomscrolling. Your attention span needs you." —
i’ve been using TRMNL
(https://usetrmnl.com/) to fight screen time habits. simple eink display which you can connect to 100s of apps to showcase information, so you can actually uninstall certain apps from your phone.
I started doodling on pen and paper again, like on the back of those yahtzee papers. Killed my screen time like nothing else, it's so much fun just drawing random nonsense!
You can disable it in content restrictions settings. Yes, many issues, but mostly with apps not being able to open external links. To me it's worth it though.
Many of the tools mentioned also support blocking websites, fwiw. This includes ScreenZen on Android and pretty much any app on iOS (it's easier to implement it there)
This is the best of HN comments. Engaging article engages a bunch of folks to share their own ideas and improve the lives of other readers. And no politics, yay!
I already moved away from the reddit app, but now I have the problem that I can not set up time-based constraints that don't block the rest of the browser.
I've used NextDNS.io in the past and setup schedules to block the reddit domain during work hours.
The problem that I found is that sometimes it's not just a place of procrastination but the place you want to search for a useful answer to your question.
Some apps like ScreenZen allow you to block websites, if you're on Android. Pretty much any iOS app will let you restrict websites (because it's easier to implement there).
One thing that has been working really well for me this year is the "internet Shabbat" rule: 24 hours of no TCP/IP every week. Friday night I pull the plug on the modem + turn off data on my phone, then enjoy all of Saturday in a disconnected mode. I can still be on the computer, just no internet.
It's amazing how much things I get done... it literally feels like I have two days instead of one. If I put a item like "outdoor exercise for 30 mins" in my TODO list, then I actually do it! Close friends and family can still reach me by phone/text, but all the chat groups and other messaging app distractions are silent.
I can still end up zoning out watching a movie in the evening, but it's more intentional: I had to pick the movie in advance and download it so I can view it offline.
The contrast with Sunday when I turn the internet back on is very notable. Suddenly the next day is disorganized and end up wasting hours on youtube recommendations, and following rabit holes, and hacker news of course.
My conclusion is that it's not the apps or the internet, it's the feeds (when information is being pushed down to you) that are the problem. It's just too convenient and we end up staying in it.
Highly recommended.
I used to do this every morning, for the first hour of the day.
I started doing it to cope with severe unmedicated ADHD. I found the only way I could get any work done was to turn off my phone and unplug the router.
(I downloaded offline docs, and if I got really stuck, made a note of what to Google later and just switched tasks.)
I then found that I enjoyed getting stuff done so much, that I'd usually keep it off until after lunch.
Very interesting.
I was thinking of scaling this up by adding Sunday too, but offline mornings might be even better... I'll look into adding a schedule in the router. I think it might be helpful to program the rule to start in the desired bedtime in the evening to make the pixel devices unexciting and incentivize reading old school books (the most efficient technology for getting me to sleep).
I've heard the advice don't touch the phone/email first thing in the morning so many times, but I can never stick to it, but if my "habit" is enforced at the network layer, I think it is doable ;)
UPDATE: Apparently iOS has a built in automation tool Shortcuts app, which allowed me to schedule this, see https://imgur.com/a/TsQJak3 I added similar rulesets to the router. Watch out world, Ivan's productivity is going to skyrocket!
Oh yes, forgot to mention. I started doing it as a sleep hygiene thing (internet off before bedtime) then realized it carries over elegantly into "deep work" in the morning :)
You definitely want the right choice to already have been made for you, in terms of device/net hygiene, when you stumble out of bed, bleary eyed!
I have a pretty similar automation, but I also make my screen turn to grayscale from sunset to sunrise.
I implemented offline mornings and have learned Greek, how to play chess half decently, and how to play the piano! It’s crazy how much time there is in the morning that I was wasting.
My family and I keep the Shabbat, which includes no electronics usage and I can not imagine doing it any differently.
I'm going to pivot into being a full-time techno shabbas goy if this movement gets large enough. I'll join the legions of dog-walkers and apartment-sitters.
Or just go hang out with friends, that's what I do. I get to hang out with people I like, people I like a little less, people I agree with, people I disagree with it. It makes me for a more humble and understanding person.
It was a joke.
Shabbat is no joke! :P
In what sense?
Great idea — do you live with others who do the same thing, or on your own?
I'm living on my own now so I don't have experience with the group version of this.
I try to be proactive if I know I'm meeting someone to remind them to call/text and not expect Signal/Telegram comms. The only thing that has been a problem are RCS text messages since my iPhone assumes if RCS was used once to communicate with someone, it should always be used. I can manually use "send as SMS" for outgoing, but I don't get the reply.
> 24 hours of no TCP/IP every week
But streaming, games, and all the other distracting stuff is mostly UDP! /s
It's not like TikTok has a 100% chance of hypnotizing you into a zombie that can only spend its waking hours thinking about dancing people and positive vibes. Only a very high chance, depending on how anxious/bored you are, amplified by the hard work of psychology PhDs.
It's so difficult to imagine the mindset of a person who can approach TikTok from a healthy perspective and not need to rely on what used to be called "parental controls" in the past to artificially prevent them from doomscrolling all day. They would just never need to consume advice like this. Surely those people must exist? Who are they?
But when you're slapped with something like C-PTSD from an early age, you aren't afforded the ability to address anxiety effectively. You have to turn to something to soothe your anxiety all the time or it will drive you insane.
If you were to try to go the complete or semi-aesetic route, you have to consider what lies on the other side of doomscrolling when there's just too much anxiety to function correctly: endless hellfire.
I have a hard time believing doomscrolling or needing to restrict screentime at every corner are effective ways to address a completely unrelated inbuilt source of boundless anxiety.
Something minor that I found to greatly impact my screen usage was to remove all the icons from my phone so that I am forced to search for the app. That minor bit of friction was able to reduce my habitual usage by 70~80%
I've been doing a lot of mindfulness meditation lately, and also learning about self soothing, emotional processing etc.
I found that now that I can access blissful and peaceful states at will, and deal with difficult emotions without getting overwhelmed, my "need" for compulsive behaviors has dropped massively. There's no longer so much pain to medicate.
It's like you say, we use this stuff because we don't know a better way.
As for social media, there's also the systemic issue of atomization in modern society. People spend so much time alone now, so that's another great pain to cope with.
I wonder why that is. How did we get here?
How does one get started? I've been doing 20 minute wim hof breathing sessions that help and I've been looking into TM due to David Lynch but nothing beyond reading.
I use Insight Timer. The daily streak feature helped me finally make it a habit, after half assing it for many years.
When starting it can be helpful to use guided meditations. There's a bunch in that app (mostly free), and on YouTube of course.
I like Shinzen Young's videos and audiobooks, he takes a very grounded, "technical" approach to this stuff.
My main "lessons learned":
- Do it every day, even if just a few minutes. Makes a huge difference.
- Make awareness broad. This takes practice, it's like a muscle. I made the mistake of making it narrow like a laser, which is much harder, less stable, and less useful! i.e. learn to hold 2, then 3 objects in mind "at the same time". e.g. the breath, and the birds outside, and the "sense of space" of the room.
The classic meditation object is the breath. In my case, that brought up a lot of emotional pain. It's fine to use other objects in that case (though eventually you can learn to integrate / heal the emotions too), e.g. focus on sounds or anything "grounding".
Not OP, but seeing a therapist, journaling, breathing exercises, and spending time lingering outside (e.g. walking), helped me regulate emotions and access peaceful states. Anxiety is the source of lots of problems for me, including doomscrolling, and unmanaged thoughts and feelings are a big source of anxiety for me. So once I learned some techniques for tending to those thoughts and feelings (instead of ignoring them), everything got a bit better.
So I guess keep reading, keep breathing, find more techniques that help you, and consider finding a professional if you need more help.
I found that a 2 minute forced pause is enough to kick me out of the hypnose. I need an app for this.
I don’t use TikTok at all. AMA.
HN and signal groups are my only social media.
I’m very social. I don’t think I miss much notification of “stuff to do”
( signal groups : large groups hitting the 1000 member limit. With drastic moderations. Example : only music flyer. Anything else is deleted under minutes )
I think the challenge is to use TikTok, but to use it in moderation.
I don't think that's a worthwhile challenge. Either you fail and get addicted, or you succeed and... what? Spend some of your free time watching low quality micro videos and being advertised to by teenagers? I don't see the upside here.
It's less a challenge and more that there are people who are consumers/creators on TikTok and can limit their usage to under an hour a day without needing to use time restrictions. The question is what aspect of their personality/mindset/upbringing enables this relative to someone unable to inhibit their urge to compulsively use social media.
Another tip is that even HN has some screen time features. If you go to your profile, you can play around with the "noprocrast", "maxvisit", and "minaway" options.
When noprocrast is on, you may only view HN for maxvisit minutes at a time, and must stay away for minaway minutes before returning. (taken from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3677504)
I find that it's hard to waste time on HN after your first salvo of the day since the day's frontpage topics are kinda set early on and they change pretty slowly. (Unless, of course, someone is wrong about one of Your Topics and needs your corrections throughout the day.)
And I don't see the point of going past the frontpage unless you want to bicker with someone on yesterday's topics that nobody will ever see. So just get it out of the way early.
— Suddenly selfaware guy who realizes he writes 5 comments a day on HN, kinda like a fat guy giving you weightloss tips. You see, the trick is to not moderate your intake at all.
I've had issues with checking HN every too often. News overload is definitely a problem, too. It's also fun to go check the new posts sometimes.
Yeah I went to my comment history after writing that and clearly I'm full of crap.
Well, all of us are full of crap thinking that we can resolve our screen time problem by talking to people through this screen thing.
But hey, since I’m here, I’m gonna give it my shot at hypocrisy as well: something worth looking into is how to feel OK with yourself not reaching for the screen compulsively. On your own, with your thoughts
It’s so funny to me to see people trying to solve their screen addiction with … an app
> I find that it's hard to waste time on HN after your first salvo of the day since the day's frontpage topics are kinda set early on and they change pretty slowly.
Here in GMT+2, there's the morning salvo - and then an afternoon salvo once the USA is properly caffeinated.
Title talks about screentime, but article only focuses on mobile phones and doom scrolling. I was surprised to see the recommendation of max 2h screen time per day for an adult at the bottom. The link leads to a page not mentioning this though.
I spend already ~5h staring at screens for work. At home my biggest screen time is watching videos on TV. I don't think I ever doom-scrolled on my phone. I do read lots of news articles on it though. Article seems to not be addressing people like me.
The link mentions: "Health experts say screen time at home should be limited to two hours or less a day" -- https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/reduce-sc...
Maybe doomscrolling is reading too many news for you? Or do you think it's not too excessive?
When I’m doom scrolling it’s almost exclusively news. I’m not all that interested in short videos, social media, or other scrollable things. News is my weakness. Last month I was pretty bad about reading news about the USA. I’ve mostly recovered. It’s easy to convince yourself it matters (especially compared to watching shorts) but the reality is that for me, it’s bordering irrelevant. I live in Canada. There’s nothing I can do about the USA. Just focus on what’s here and now.
After a Psilocybin trip I found that anxiety was driving a vast majority of my desire for screen time. Post trip for the next few days my mind was perfectly calm - no thoughts were forcefully intruding, constantly causing distraction and frustration leading to seeking screen time.
During that time I could go to work, consume tasks, complete them without stress or distraction and feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. Same when I went home and did chores around the house. That is a feeling that has been elusive most of my life. The big thing that stood out to me those few days: little to no desire for screen time.
If you think you have anxiety then do yourself a favor and seek professional help. Otherwise these life hacks are useless as they are ignoring the root cause of your desire for screen time.
I’ve scrolled through the article and another tip would be: Have an alternative.
You can’t just go from screentime to no screentime if you have nothing to do off the screen, plan some activities.
This is a great point. It’s talked about in a book called Indistractabke. The author talks about trying to get rid of his phone during the day and even moving to a flip phone. But other nonsense just takes its place.
It’s essentially like being a dry drunk. You need something else to replace the alcohol or you just trade alcoholism for something else.
Been there, done that. Listen to the person above me.
I tried to do that in the past when I my depression was more severe. I thought that'd help me, but I replaced staring at my screen with staring at wall or just sleeping.
>I replaced staring at my screen with staring at wall or just sleeping
So you just tried to replace your compulsive use of your devices with nothing, like the poster you replied to advised against. Great.
Yeah, which is I'm saying that's why you should listen to the poster above - to prove their point.
Unless I wrote it in a confusing way, in which case I do apologise
“Been there, done that” usually implies that it didn’t work or that you’re repeating old, no longer useful information.
Ah, sorry then. I thought that idiom has different meaning, thank you for correcting me.
On top of that, which is absolutely true, saying "listen to the person above me" (instead of something along the lines of "guys/to anyone reading this, listen to...") while replying directly to someone makes it seem like you're exhorting them--that you're advising them to look for some other reply that runs counter to their point, instead of addressing the general HN crowd. "I thought that'd help me, but..." also seems to counter their point further instead of agreeing with it.
:( I can assure you that was not my intention.
But thanks for telling me that; I'll be more careful in the future.
Hey, it's okay. Even more, I empathized a lot with your struggle with "screens", so there's that. I'm sorry if my reply came out a bit harsh.
What do you mean -- you couldn't find something else to do?
Yes, exactly. I had no idea what to do with myself, and thus all I did was browsed Internet. I thought that getting rid of it will "fix" me (to be honest, I think I confused cause and effect). And so, I tried.
But I had nothing to replace this with, and I didn't magically became a disciplined or productive person. And then I would go back to my bad habits, just feeling even stronger self-hatred.
How did you end up overcoming the problem?
I didn't, honestly. In the end, it was just a gradual step for me. I got more things to do, I became slightly more social, talked to more and more people, and it just happened. I still deal with it, just on a lesser scale where it's managable unless I have a bad day - in which case again I'll turn to screens for comfort. But it's rare.
At least on iOS, I've found ScreenZen (https://www.screenzen.co) to be pretty ideal. I'll definitely try SpeedBump if they add me to the beta, though.
Like SpeedBump, ScreenZen also has a "wait before using addictive apps" function (though, it doesn't have the "wait a bit longer to get 15mins vs. 2mins" - that would be really nice).
ScreenZen also keeps track of "streaks" of days not going over your overall limit in addictive apps. Unfortunately, that limit is counted by number of sessions, not the actual overall app screen time (by default, if you set your limit to 1 hour, it gives you 6 sessions of 10 minutes per app). It would be nice to combine this with SpeedBump's different-time-limit feature: if I want to quickly check a post or show a friend something on Instagram, I could use only 2mins out of my overall hour limit, instead of 10mins.
My cell phone lives in my sock drawer with the only exception being when I take it out for GPS. Otherwise, I have fully replaced my mobile computing with my Daylight Computer tablet. I feel like I have a much healthier relationship with this thing than I had with my cell phone. The lack of color and the lack of notifications has made my usage feel way more intentional. Before, I wanted to kick my habit of scrolling social media before I got out of bed in the morning, but I didn't actively work on that. One day, I simply realized I had kicked the habit without even trying!
Not having a phone on me at all times to cope with boring or awkward moments has really been eye opening, and I believe very healthy for me. Especially as someone who has had a phone on me for my teenage years and throughout most of my adult life thus far.
The issue then wasn't phone specifically, but social media apps installed there. I have phone at home around on the desk (but then again not always sitting by it), but since having 0 social apps its just a tool for emails, calls, whatsapp, navigation etc. and I quickly check it maybe every 1-2h for new emails/calls and thats it.
I still check FB on desktop from time to time if somebody close doesn't have anything interesting, but that is 1-3 mins max. FB has a very hostile UI on desktop these days (Firefox and ublock origin) and a lot of bugs on their sites, so I quickly get disgusted and close it.
The best part is, it completely refreshes whole timeline with new stuff every few mins, so anything I was just reading just blips out of existence, never to be seen again. So even if I manage to stay 3 mins it literally kicks me out. Thanx FB.
Another issue with that social media (don't use any other, why ffs its all mind cancer) is being overflooded with fake AI generated bullshit posts full of half truths and outright lies. Normally via suggested groups, cesspool of scum. So I have no idea what friends actually do, and not missing it.
It's awesome to see a Daylight Computer user in the wild :)
Did you also try out an e-paper phone at some point? And how are you doing in terms of connecting with friends and so on?
The only other e-paper device that I had was a small nook many years ago. As far as connecting with people, I think quite well? The only social media I really use is bluesky, which has been really nice. Otherwise I keep in touch with my meatspace friends either over SMS (I use JMP Chat for SMS over XMPP on any device) or Signal (I use the molly.im client, which is easier to use without a cell phone (particularly because you can't scan QR codes on the Daylight)).
Ironically I actually feel like I experience far less FOMO than when I was hyper connected too :P
This looks so intriguing. How is it at keeping on top of stuff like email and text? Any lag with a bluetooth keyboard?
I have always had trouble keeping on top of email, but probably as good as anything? I don't use a Bluetooth keyboard, but I use a USB keyboard (ZSA Voyager) and a Bluetooth mouse (Logitech MX Anywhere 3S) and it works well for me. For some reason I have to re-pair the mouse often, but I think that's on the mouse side. My headphones have no trouble staying paired.
Earlier this year, I decided to set up a couple of software based systems to reduce my screentime. They have been largely been successful. I have reduced my average daily phone screen time from 5-6 hrs to 2-3 hrs, around 1.5 hrs of which is 'wasteful' (reddit, HN, instagram) and the remaining 1.5 hrs is actual communication time (email, calls, chat). On my computer, my screen time is nearly all productive time by my standards. Some of the things I did are:
For my phone:
- Deleted all apps for social media, all browsing has to be via browser.
- Used SocialFocus (https://socialfocus.app/) to remove feeds and recommendations from all apps, any post access happens via shares or search
- Also turned on a timer for social media (45 minutes each for reddit/insta).
- Turned social media black/white instead of color.
- Used dumbify launcher (https://dumbifyapp.com/) to turn my menu bar into a text based one instead of icons.
For my computer:
- Used Cold Turkey (https://getcoldturkey.com/) to set up blocks for various websites, subreddits etc.
- Locked up my Cold Turkey block with a long random text string, which increases friction if I want to unlock and as a result reduces my inclination to do so.
- Use News Feed Eradicator (https://github.com/jordwest/news-feed-eradicator/) to remove feeds from websites which have some utility for me (e.g. LinkedIn) but can be a time sink.
Honestly, these steps have worked quite well for me thus far. I have managed to get back into reading (both fiction, non-fiction as well as academic textbooks), freed up time to spend with family and friends, and also gotten into watching TV shows - something I had not really done in the last 2-3 years due to being hooked on short form media
I went full grayscale on my phone and it really helped. It just made my phone way more boring.
I also highly recommend turning off history in the YouTube app, if you all use it. It then surfaces...zero recommendations. It's blissfully quiet.
> Completely quitting social media is getting less and less realistic. Platforms like Instagram or TikTok can be essential to connect with friends
I doubt it. Trying to not to use all of popular social for some time (for 30 days) was inspiring to me, so I don't have any idea why those apps so important.
Which Android apps for limiting screen time does the HN crowd recommend? Is there one that doesn't sell your data or request network access? (Ideally of course the app would be open-source but I'm not getting my hopes up.)
I've been wanting to try Digital Wellbeing but it looks like it's still not available for non-Google devices. Or at least it's shown as "not compatible" when accessing the Play Store from GrapheneOS.
I recommend this one for Android: https://github.com/markusfisch/ScreenTime
It doesn't limit apps, it just displays your screen time in a permanent notification and allows you to view and export past statistics.
I've found that to be very effective. From a systems perspective, it amounts to adding a new feedback loop, similar to this leverage point described by Donella Meadows[1]:
There was this subdivision of identical houses, the story goes, except that for some reason the electric meter in some of the houses was installed in the basement and in others it was installed in the front hall, where the residents could see it constantly, going round faster or slower as they used more or less electricity. With no other change, with identical prices, electricity consumption was 30 percent lower in the houses where the meter was in the front hall.
We systems-heads love that story because it’s an example of a high leverage point in the information structure of the system. It’s not a parameter adjustment, not a strengthening or weakening of an existing loop. It’s a NEW LOOP, delivering feedback to a place where it wasn’t going before.
[1] Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System - https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-t...
Thanks! That app looks quite nice (especially the virtualization) but I already know how much I use my phone (too much :)) and that obtrusive feedback will only get me so far. So I do need an app that goes a bit further and allows me to track & block usage of applications.
> virtualization
Classic Freudian typo (I've been working on virtualization-related stuff way too much this week). I meant "visualization" of course! :)
> obtrusive
s/obtrusive/unobtrusive
I set up a basic SQL table where I record the time spent on my phone (and other devices) based on the screen time data from StayFree (Android), and a little private webpage with a line chart and average statistics.
It's pretty manual (2-3 mins per week), but logging the new dates each week is a nice little "check-in" to stop me from drifting back towards more screen time.
I've never been a heavy user, but I noticed sometimes I drifted towards 1-2 hours per day and have since gotten down to an average of less than 15 minutes per day. I just use the phone for utility purpose now. I got scared straight seeing the UK average daily phone use statistics, including my own, and how much that adds up to over a year.
Digital Wellbeing was quite good but I noticed it counts things which aren't necessarily screen time. I kept having loads of time on the 'Clock' app for some reason, and spam calls I ignore seemed to also be counted even if I saw them on my watch.
As for the phone setup itself:
- no media apps (social, games, video, news)
- a web browser, but I try to just remember anything I'm interested in and look it up later on a PC
- absolute minimum notifications. phone, sms, email and messages (Signal/WhatsApp). I try to use only for emergencies or quick messages and meetups instead of having conversations over messages
- minimal launcher (Nova) with black and white icons
- no blocks, just screen time monitoring using StayFree. I don't want to use blocks as a crutch
Thanks for the insights!
> StayFree (Android)
Side note: Are you blocking StayFree from accessing the network? Their ToS make it rather clear that they will collect & share all possible data they can get their hands on.
I'm not sure if I am or not. If it's not too much of a write-up, how might I be able to check? Is this something that can be changed in phone settings?
Thanks for letting me know. I wasn't aware of this otherwise.
I like this one: https://www.forestapp.cc/
Then I whitelist google maps, camera, and my messaging app. Everything else is inaccessible. I paid for it.
I use TimeLimit. It's open source, available on F-Droid or Google Play, etc.
https://timelimit.io/
- Yes it is possible to live without using social media (except hacker news of course) on a daily basis. TikTok is the easiest to do without. Instagram and Snapchat can be deleted. Use the web app for those rare moments you need to check hours for a business that doesn’t have a website (sadly this happens)
- iOS Focus Modes is underrated in this article. When I arrive at work all my apps except teams and outlook disappear, my phone turns into a work dashboard. After work my phone shows my journal and the clock app. I never get notifications at work, they queue up until I leave. My watch is synchronized and does similar, showing exactly what I need and nothing else for different stages of my day. Focus Modes has sadly not been copied by Android so I can’t consider stitching until there’s a good answer (a well supported HealthKit alternative being the other deal breaker).
- iOS screen time is busted af, it is known. Might as well be a random number generator. I recommend avoiding. Apple workers reading this: pls fix
My guide to cut down screen time - have kids, play with them every day after work.
Yeah but then after they're asleep, you're brain fried and doomscrolling anyway :')
I have gone in a slightly different direction, where I use my device to sell goods and services, and aquire parts,components, and specific information to facilitate my selling, and the maintanence and upgradeing of my own personal things. Also I use my screen time to seek out real world events and activities. This has led me to have expectations, as to what I get, as a real reward, and, also forces me to follow through with comitments made on line, in the real.world, therfor the whole thing, becomes self regualating.
You probably see it enough already in your ads, but this has been the most effective app blocker for me: https://getbrick.app
I've ignored it because it's advertised :) What's your experience with it?
Ha, I do the same for most advertised things. It is as advertised. I've easily gained back more of my time than the $59 that it costs. Game changer if you make a habit to "brick" your phone every morning.
My solution was to only allow free-software and no browsers/"content" apps on my phone after a fresh install. It somehow worked wonders.
I also made an app to fix my scrolling issue — it’s called EvoCat.
The idea came from wanting to combine the best parts of all the focus apps I used: scheduled block sessions like Opal, mindful breathing interruptions like One Sec, and some light gamification to make it feel less like punishment.
EvoCat is a small animated character (a cat-phone hybrid) that evolves as you stay focused. The longer you avoid distractions, the stronger it becomes — and the harder it gets to cancel your focus sessions. It turns screen time control into something a bit more playful, but still effective.
I currently have a beta available on iOS and I’m happy to share a TestFlight link if anyone wants to try it out. You can also check it out here: https://evocat.app
Would love feedback from fellow builders and focus-app nerds :)
I created a two-factor authentication app that only provides login codes for social media sites during certain hours of a day.
If I want access to a site, I have to plan it carefully to log in within that window. Then if I find I'm misusing it it's easy to kick myself off.
Great article! I’ve noticed that most screen time discussions focus heavily on mobile usage, which makes sense given the data, but I think we underestimate how much desktop screen time also affects our health.
As someone who’s been building LookAway[0] (a mindful break reminder app for Mac), I’ve seen firsthand how easy it is to slip into hours of continuous screen time at a desk resulting in things like eye strain, posture issues, and even productivity dips.
Would love to see more awareness and tools around managing desktop screen habits!
[0]: https://lookaway.app
Look, why should it be the individual consumer or their parents who regulate screen time when it’s not our fault?
Computers have become an unprecedented scourge and curse to our attention, our moods and our very souls, but radio, telephone, and TV led up to this.
It is time that the architects of consumer communications technology took responsibility for the utter grind and drain they’re causing us in every waking hour--literally--because these days, my smartphone knows exactly when I begin to stir in the morning and dumps a fresh deluge of pings before I can make it to the bathroom...
Radio and TV had discrete programmes. Either you were there, or forget any watching in years except a rerun, if there was any. Yes, they were recordings in vynil, cassetes and whatnot, but these were not cheap.
Nowadays, you can, you know, just download narrated podcasts, ebooks from Gutenberg, free PD audiobooks...
Listen to some stories in silence, on your bed, at night. Let your brain imagine the story. You don't even need an internet connection at all. Download them at your library, listen them at home.
On news, RSS feeds. Feeder on Android (and any good client under Linux too) has access to full content, you don't need to be online to read the news.
The Conversation and Science Alert have the whole news in their feed. Use Feeder, and while you add a feed, don't forget to check the 'get the whole content' option or similar.
Now you will be able to read news offline. No alerts, no dopamine, no useless bullshit, no bait 'news', no nothing.
The Conversation has curated articles from major sections (Science, Health, Culture, Environment, Economy, Politics). Everything else it's just boring propaganda -from all sides- to polarize and scare you like hell so you are rendered a zombie customer.
Science Alert it's that, Scientific News, popular science. If The Conversation Science feed feels bland to you, here your have.
Since everyone is rattling off their own solutions.
* I removed all apps that aren't tools/utilities to help me get things done. No entertainment (including RSS!). For example, I have Busycal, Things, and Bear installed along with a few other utilities. I also removed non-essential utilities. There is no need to pay my credit card from my phone. This also has the benefit of reducing tracking.
* Disabled JS for Safari. I would find myself surfing the web and wasting time. Even if I initially started with good intentions. Turns out, a lot of my web usage was "I wonder about this, let's search it". "That was a cool movie, let's see what other people think online". It is an absolute pain to dig 37 menus deep to enable JS again, which forces me to live without it.
* Time limits never worked for me. I'd always ask for five more minutes. Just one more hit Tim Apple, I promise. Last time. They may work for you though.
* Either disabled notifications or set them to appear in daily reviews. Now I get those daily reviews and realize it's filled with stuff that doesn't matter. Every time I pick up my phone I risk falling into a black hole. The less I'm notified to pick up it, the less time I lose. Only alerts from my partner and similar get through immediately.
* Get an alarm clock or use a smartwatch. Seriously. You know those people who wake up and reach over for cigs before they're even out of bed? Don't do that with your phone.
* I lean heavily into my smart watch. For me, trying to create friction on my phone was only mildly successful. A smart watch has a ton of organic friction that feels natural. Instead of giving your Ferarri a flat tire to slow it down, just ride a bicycle. Synthetic friction vs organic friction. I'm bad with analogies. Leaving my phone behind is something I do sometimes but not as much as I should.
* These days the only social media account I have is HN. It's not ideal but everything is a WIP.
There really should be some concerted effort by the government to study these behaviors and what can be done. We dramatically dropped cigarette use with a lot of work and I believe we can do the same with phones.
I still waste time on my laptop but it's not a quick dopamine hit. I spend more time on side-projects though now that I'm forcing myself to be in front of a real machine. Reducing all screen-time is something I still need to work on.
"No more doomscrolling. Your attention span needs you." — i’ve been using TRMNL (https://usetrmnl.com/) to fight screen time habits. simple eink display which you can connect to 100s of apps to showcase information, so you can actually uninstall certain apps from your phone.
I started doodling on pen and paper again, like on the back of those yahtzee papers. Killed my screen time like nothing else, it's so much fun just drawing random nonsense!
These apps are interesting. Another good one is "Block" (with a green icon).
But, does anyone know of any alternatives for degoogled phones? E.g. from F-Droid?
There's TimeLimit on F-Droid. I found it hard to set up, though.
I tried every kind of focus app and focus mode on iOS, and nothing stuck. After years of trying, this approach worked well for me:
1. Delete any app with any kind of algorithmic feed (YouTube, TikTok, etc)
2. Uninstall Safari
That's right, I've been rocking a browserless phone for about a year now, and I'm never going back. AMA
How did you uninstall safari? Have you run into any issues without having it available on your phone?
You can disable it in content restrictions settings. Yes, many issues, but mostly with apps not being able to open external links. To me it's worth it though.
Most of these tools are focused on blocking apps. I read everything through browser.
Many of the tools mentioned also support blocking websites, fwiw. This includes ScreenZen on Android and pretty much any app on iOS (it's easier to implement it there)
For this very reason, I uninstalled the browser on my phone. No joke
This is the best of HN comments. Engaging article engages a bunch of folks to share their own ideas and improve the lives of other readers. And no politics, yay!
https://github.com/chaosprint/twice
this is a tool I use for Chrome. works for me
I already moved away from the reddit app, but now I have the problem that I can not set up time-based constraints that don't block the rest of the browser.
I've used NextDNS.io in the past and setup schedules to block the reddit domain during work hours.
The problem that I found is that sometimes it's not just a place of procrastination but the place you want to search for a useful answer to your question.
I could live with not being able to access reddit from my private phone, I am not logged into my personal reddit account on my work PC.
Some apps like ScreenZen allow you to block websites, if you're on Android. Pretty much any iOS app will let you restrict websites (because it's easier to implement there).
Leechblock for Firefox works well, but sadly doesn't work on iOS.
I switched to a basic Nokia phone for a couple of months and this put a stop to it :)