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

For the distractions, one thing that helps me is removing easy access to them.

Just like having junk food in the house means that I will tend to eat junk food (but I won't go buy junk food on impulse)...

* Remove the time-wasting capabilities from your devices (e.g., uninstall apps, set up uBlock Origin blocking rules for anything TikTok-like, block HN for a week).

* Make dedicated distraction devices hard to access (e.g., unplug gaming rig/console and store it away for a week/month, same with the living room TV/screen, sell that handheld gaming device).

Also, once you get some momentum on a better activity, it's easier to stay doing it. You might have to lock away all your distractions for a few days before you can get immersed in that coding side project (or writing that novella, or that new workout routine). But then it can become a go-to activity that you do automatically, and maybe even think about at other times, rather than defaulting to doomscrolling.

(I don't claim to always do this myself, but when I do, it works.)

It will sound cliché, but if dark thoughts come to you, if you start feeling like whatever else than Youtube is worthless, etc... it might we worth finding someone qualified to listen.

If it's mild, and you just fell like you're too easily drawn into whatever the algo feeds you, well... it means the dopamine dealers at Alphabet are doing their job "right". Your job is know to try and cure the addiction.

This is not like "spending you days on cable TV" - YT has infinite content, with no occasion for boredom. Everything is always going to be 100% interesting, captivating, infuriating, etc... And if it's not, the "next" rush is a click away. Your brain is fighting an unfair battle.

Thankfully, "cold turkey" should not have any critical downside, so you could try.

Just being mindfull of how long you spend can help.

Leechblock NG has a helpful mode where you just restrict how long you can spend, before being locked. [1]

Any extension that removes the "suggestion", "shorts", etc... would put you in a better spot. I use Enhancer for Youtube for that [2].

I also find that many of the most interesting youtubers happen to be on nebula.tv, which clearly is way less designed for binge and addiction. [3]

And of course the usual stuff apply - find something or someone so great that you're rather spend time with them that on YT.

Also, at some point, I hope someone will run on a platform of "not letting advertisers completely rot people's brain for a few clicks". Even meth dealers have to sleep and watch they back.

Good luck !

[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock-ng...

[2] https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/enhancer-for-youtub...

[3] https://nebula.tv/featured

I have found that a useful method for getting distractions off my work laptop has been https://selfcontrolapp.com/ (if you're on mac).

Sports. I do 2h of strength training every Mon/Wed/Fri. You work with barbell, not machines. Requires all your mental and physical focus. That pretty much will soak up any “free” after-work time you have on those days. Then on Tue/Thu you can do social activities. Any time spent not working/sport/social activities I spend “whatever” which means watching a show, reading a book or doom scrolling - but it won’t a lot of time left for it. And honestly at that point you probably have a pretty well balanced life that “doom scrolling” is not an issue.

Not a bug, it was an explicit change they made about a year ago. I used to enjoy the recommendations based on my likes and they took that away.