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Comment by Trundle | Hacker News Reader

Having to restore access gives you many more seconds of time between impulse and gratification where you can catch yourself in the process and have the internal "the fuck are you doing? Is that video even going to bring you a modicum of happiness? Get back to work and we can do something actually fun later you adhd fuck" talk.

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Does that work for you? Do you think it works in general? I do get the impulse to click on a link - and you are claiming that having to activate something (like I would do with uMatrix, I suppose?), makes you cognitively pause?

I guess we're all wired differently. That one doesn't seem to be a challenge to me (although, I can assure you that there are other unhealthy things that I wish I could figure out how to stop doing).

Adding friction doesn't work for me. But I can just say, "I don't facebook anymore. It's not a thing I do." And I stop. Fine, but there's still an itch that needs scratching. I bounce to instagram, reddit, imgur, news sites, then my favorite bloggers, in that order. There's always something. And as for facebook - I can't quit altogether. I manage a page for a small business, I have to test things for work, I want to promote my blog. So I can't do cold turkey, and I keep coming back. Fuck, I hate it so much.

I do that with politics, so I can't point fingers. I don't know why - it's not like I can change anything...

It doesn't work for me. Editing a file isn't nearly enough friction to dissuade me. Even more advanced blocking programs didn't work for me. Instead of spending time browsing the internet, I spent lots of time figuring out how to circumvent the blocker. No work was done either way.

You sound like me. I'm not really very social (but I like people), so just unscribe works for me. I use LinkedIn as a rolodex.

What did (if a anything) work for you?

I'm still working on it. I fear the only viable solution is going to be to drastically change how I interact with computers and the internet.

There was a period of about a week where my home cable internet was down and I had to pair my phone with my computer in order to work. I don't have an unlimited plan and I was constantly afraid of running out of data, so I didn't go to any website I didn't absolutely have to. The fear of not being able to work when I needed to and getting fired was a good motivator. I immediately reverted to old habits when my internet came back for good.

Briefly, then it gets undone and left undone for a good while.

List making is the best option I've found so far but I still have issues with staying on track. It's the middle of my work day right now and here I am.

I give myself 90 minutes (or more, if I am lucky enough to get into "the zone") and then 30 minutes to farf off. Repeat. I don't often go to the office, so this usually continues for well over the 8 hours of work-time they pay me for.

(I also heavily use lists)

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