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Ask HN: How do you fight YouTube addiction and procrastination? I'm struggling

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Re: Ask HN: How do you fight YouTube addiction and procrastination? I'm struggling

#61

Post by stabbles »

quaintdev wrote: post #12

YouTube is easy to block. Just clear all your history and disable history. This stops home screen recommendations and also disables YouTube shorts

I can recommend this. I'm sure it's a bug in the YouTube interface that they recommend literally nothing. My home screen has been completely empty for over a year, just a message saying "Your watch history is off". I have a couple subscriptions, which means a new video every so many days, which appear in the side bar, and they're still two or three clicks away, and that's perfect.

Re: Ask HN: How do you fight YouTube addiction and procrastination? I'm struggling

#62

Post by waltbosz »

ivanjermakov wrote: post #31
quaintdev wrote: post #12

YouTube is easy to block. Just clear all your history and disable history. This stops home screen recommendations and also disables YouTube shorts

Another option is use uBlock filter to hide recommendations while keeping subscription feed: youtube.com##:matches-path(/^\/?$/) #page-manager

I did this with both reddit and YouTube on my phone. That's how I beat the doom scrolling loop.

On Android for YT, I've installed the NewPipe app which can be configured to show no suggestions. I just have a list of app level subscribed channels, no yt account required

Re: Ask HN: How do you fight YouTube addiction and procrastination? I'm struggling

#63

Post by narrator »

I am a huge procrastinator, so I have to do some elaborate stuff to get myself to do things. Anxiety producing methods don't work very well because I just feel overwhelmed and that doesn't help things. The best technique I've found that consistently works is to write down the things I have to do today in my phone and to close my eyes and visualize getting them done repeatedly. I imagine myself doing the actions one after another that I need to do to complete the task. I do it multiple times in a loop until I lose my fear of it. I write down the steps if it's long and I can't keep it in my short term memory and go through that.

Re: Ask HN: How do you fight YouTube addiction and procrastination? I'm struggling

#65

Post by sgc »

stabbles wrote: post #61
quaintdev wrote: post #12

YouTube is easy to block. Just clear all your history and disable history. This stops home screen recommendations and also disables YouTube shorts

I can recommend this. I'm sure it's a bug in the YouTube interface that they recommend literally nothing. My home screen has been completely empty for over a year, just a message saying "Your watch history is off". I have a couple subscriptions, which means a new video every so many days, which appear in the side bar, and they're still two or three clicks away, and that's perfect.

It's not a bug, it's extremely passive aggressive. They couple it with rewriting their browser, working group recommendations, and legal lobbying to make shoving ads down your throat their basic "human" right. When I saw they did it to me, my response was, "great, game on".

Re: Ask HN: How do you fight YouTube addiction and procrastination? I'm struggling

#66

Post by aftergibson »

I'm so burnt out from "trying to do more" I'm actively procrastinating because I have no more emotional energy due to circumstance. You might be in the same boat. Giving yourself a break is okay too,you might then get bored of it and do something cool.

Re: Ask HN: How do you fight YouTube addiction and procrastination? I'm struggling

#67

Post by sgc »

bxparks wrote: post #25
quaintdev wrote: post #12

YouTube is easy to block. Just clear all your history and disable history. This stops home screen recommendations and also disables YouTube shorts

Yup, this is the way. Regarding Shorts, I have no YouTube history, but I still get Shorts. I hate them. You must be doing something else to disable them.

Shorts are hell. I use FF Redirector plugin to gently save myself without restricting content, but there are other ways.

Redirect: *youtube.com/shorts/* to: $1youtube.com/watch?v=$2

Re: Ask HN: How do you fight YouTube addiction and procrastination? I'm struggling

#69

Post by al_borland »

I’m in a similar rut. For me, it seems to be a response to changes at work, where I don’t know why we’re doing anything we’re being told to do, and if all feels quite meaningless. My response has unfortunately been a mental shutdown.
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