My only social media is hexbear and i still end up refreshing [local][comments][new] a few times before breaking the spell.
When i had tiktok it was nigh impossible.
Good on you
this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
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That's one thing I like about Lemmy. There's just not enough content to keep you constantly looking at new things. And even if there was the algorithm is too shit to show them to you. I guess you could do new sort on all... But I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemies.
I do controversial by curiosity sometimes but you guys are down voting the right things si that not hood things.
One thing I managed to do is stop looking at Twitter entirely earlier this year—instantly got back an hour or two per day, and I don't miss it at all.
But yeah, it's important to fight the urge to soothe boredom with scrolling or other mindless pursuits! Boredom is an adaptive trait—it's something that pushes us to find interesting and enriching things to do with our time, if we allow it to. One thing I've found helpful is keeping an hourly diary of my day (with a granularity of 5 minutes to make calculation easier), and I have a little reminder pop up at the top of the hour in case I get lax and forget to do it. There are apps for this, but I just use a regular ol' notes app (Joplin, in my case) and make a note of how long I spent doing something every time I switch tasks, like so:
7-8
Hexbear (10)
Reading [book] (30)
Bathroom (5)
YouTube (15)
This won't give you fancy analytics, but I personally haven't found those to be necessary; the simple act of recording will draw your awareness to what you're doing (which may by itself modify your behavior by snapping you out of fixed patterns), and if you stick with it over a number of days, you'll start to notice patterns. For instance, in the hypothetical hour described above, you can see that I was reading, and then after I went to the bathroom, I watched a bunch of YouTube. If my intention was to keep reading, and I notice that this pattern repeats itself consistently, it would be an indication that I should avoid YouTube when taking a small break from reading so that I don't get distracted. Noticing these kinds of patterns has really helped me improve my adherence to my own goals, since for me switching between tasks is often a place where things can go off the rails. And sometimes, it's simply looking at something like
7-8
YouTube (60)
8-9
YouTube (60)
that can make you go, "...you know what, I don't want to spend another precious hour of my life watching YouTube videos." That's where those top-of-the-hour reminders come in handy—not really necessary when everything is running well, but helpful to interrupt your behavior and give you a chance to make a different choice.
If you do prefer an app-based solution, check out Simple Time Tracker, which lets you define your own tasks (in addition to the basic presets like "Cleaning" or "Games"), and then you track your time by simply tapping the appropriate task when you start it. I personally prefer the simplicity of a text file, but if you wanna have graphs and categories and be able to see your quantitative progress in reducing/increasing certain behaviors, I think it'll fit the bill. It's FOSS (GPLv3) and local-only with extremely minimal permissions so you don't have to worry about them selling your data or anything like that.
Joplin user xoxoxoxoxox
This sounds useful but honestly at least when I’m at home I think im gonna leave my phone by my bed and just not have a phone all day. There was a time in life where i just didnt have a phone glued to my asscheeks 24/7 and I think I need to do that. My laptop can take calls and messages anyway but using it is more involved so i dont flip it open for any random second of downtime
Before i had a smart phone I used to download youtube videos on my desktop then load them onto my ipod touch then walk to school watching them which meant i only ever picked videos that were worth the effort instead of putting any old slop in my watch later like i have been doing. Mmmmm
I really want to limit the amount of youtube I watch. It takes up hours of my day
I've backslid quite a bit on insta reels, but I try to cut past the habit by making my productivity related apps easier to get to before I can open the app. Samsung android has the option of corner apps on your lock screen, so I have notepad and my timers setup rather than camera and whatever else was default. I also use the routines and modes app to redirect me to a basic custom homepage if I open Instagram during work hours. Though I do turn that off from time to time when I'm having rough days.
tbh irl is pretty boring
So is the shit on the scrolling apps
tbh I don't use those, I just assumed they were awesome
I’ve noticed this when I accidentally leave it somewhere but literally any milisecond I have free I feel the urge to reach for it which certainly can’t be great lol
put your phone on the other side of the room challenge
I sometimes have the instinct of "ooooo im gonna scrooool" but I limit it to a certain number of times a day and a certain number of scrools.
It's still too much and it's the one of the deepest and most harmful habits I have, causing me to overflow most days, but at least it doesn't consume every empty moment.
Yeah I removed tiktok and i have gained back hours every day, I still have the tick and get here but i realize instantly, ah I already looked today and i stop
Mine's largely spider solitaire.
I really need to try this.