Limit yourself to casual games that don't soak up your life. Don't even look at an MMORPG or MOBA. It's digital crack. Focus more time on people.
Ask HN: Spending my free time in video games. It's eating me. Suggestions?
11–20 of 43 posts
Re: Ask HN: Spending my free time in video games. It's eating me. Suggestions?
#12What is wrong with you? You are living the dream. That sounds like the perfect life. I wish I had that when I was 22. Heck I wish I had that now.
Re: Ask HN: Spending my free time in video games. It's eating me. Suggestions?
#13You don't have to be productive all the time. It is important to have some time to relax and have fun. There are far worse things you could be doing than playing too many video games. You can try replacing video games with a more productive activity, but make sure it is something you enjoy doing and don't feel the need to quit gaming entirely.
Re: Ask HN: Spending my free time in video games. It's eating me. Suggestions?
#14You don't have to be productive all the time. It is important to have some time to relax and have fun. There are far worse things you could be doing than playing too many video games. You can try replacing video games with a more productive activity, but make sure it is something you enjoy doing and don't feel the need to quit gaming entirely.
I sometimes think of quiting cold turkey and find something else. This, however, scares the crap out of me, because I don't see myself replacing a 2 hour gaming session with a 2h book reading, for instance.
I guess I could start working on personal projects
Re: Ask HN: Spending my free time in video games. It's eating me. Suggestions?
#15That commute is killing you. So is the perception that you aren't doing anything if you aren't doing something all of the time. Give yourself a break. Everyone needs to have an outlet and video games happen to be on the lower end of the scale in terms of harmful outlets. Now you just need to forgive yourself for being human. If you are intent on removing video games from your life, please replace it with something th…
I don't feel depressed but I think you nailed it with " So is the perception that you aren't doing anything if you aren't doing something all of the time".
Every time since I started reading stuff about self improvement (2 years ago) that, everytime I touch on video games I feel bad about it and that I should be focusing on something else. It's a constant inner struggle that it's hard to win.
Re: Ask HN: Spending my free time in video games. It's eating me. Suggestions?
#16I had similar struggles. I was heavy in to CS:GO & dota2 and all I got out of this was going to bed angry. My solution was pretty extreme - I sold my gaming PC. Here's my steam profile now: https://i.imgur.com/4sSc0O7.png That said, I didn't stop gaming all together, a time later I bought a PS4 and some single player games. This holds my attention for an hour or so when I'm completely wiped from work towards the late…
Yep. CS:GO here. I sometimes wonder why I still play that game. It's really digital crack. I really want to get into personal projects but sometimes I just would like to get out of the house and explore stuff. Thing is I can't do that, not where I live. At least until I move out.
Re: Ask HN: Spending my free time in video games. It's eating me. Suggestions?
#17I've been on the uninstall/install cycle. I used to be very much into League, and plenty of games before that. I stopped on January 1st 2015 as part of my new year's resolution. I knew I had to stop because it wasn't giving me time to achieve my goals. Specifically, to become a proficient programmer. I think this contributed greatly because the sensation of achieving little wins while playing games was immediately re…
What did you replace games with?
Re: Ask HN: Spending my free time in video games. It's eating me. Suggestions?
#18Reading your post it's a bit unclear why you don't want to play video games. You obviously enjoy doing it a lot, and in particular you enjoy it more than the other things you listed (journaling, etc).
The strongest reasons seem to be external, like the embarrassment of being known as someone who plays lots of video games. That's a valid reason, but I mention it because maybe it's not in itself enough of a motivation for you to actually change.
So my humble guess is that you should take a while and think about your motivations and what it is that you'd really like to do instead, and how to get started with that.
I think momentum is a big thing in life, and it's always easier to go along the same old path, especially if you're tired and don't have lots of time for reflection.
I have some of these boring time sink behaviors too. Let's just come up with something to aim for...
Okay, here's my thing for this week. I like to bake simple bread, and I like to make websites, so I've been thinking about making a website about simple bread baking—a nice little guide, like a recipe but with inline big videos that I'd shoot with my DSLR, and very clear and nice instructions. So I'd like to get started on that, at least shoot most of the videos.
Which reminds me, bread baking is a nice thing to do! While it's rising and baking you have time to do other stuff, even play some game, but you're not just wasting time, you're baking! And then there's the smell of fresh bread and everyone's happy.
Re: Ask HN: Spending my free time in video games. It's eating me. Suggestions?
#19If you work and have a normal social life. I don't see the problem of playing video games. You should have some resting/down time.
Don't treat it as wasting of time, it is actually a quality time that ppl needs.
If you want to focus on more time to do something else, find a buddy to do it together or find a motivation may help.
Re: Ask HN: Spending my free time in video games. It's eating me. Suggestions?
#20If you are having trouble with recognizing delayed gratification, place play into the bin of work.
Start numbering and comparing everything you do (work and play).
You will start comparing playing video games to working out, and see that over your entire lifetime, the latter makes you happier.
Another timeless advice is sleep well, exercise, and read. But you probably know that.