How did you get over your gaming addiction to focus more on side projects?

One method is to take the approach of just uninstalling the games and then trying to live with the withdrawal symptoms until you're over it (while working towards new projects). The other method is to do it over a period of time, while also slowly getting rid of all the distractions that get you to play games in the first place.

I find the second method easier to work with, although some are able to just flick an internal switch and stop one fine day. At the same time it's good to start working on your side projects by starting small (extremely small, whatever you're willing to agree with), and then increasing it over a period of time. I've found this method to help. You could start with something as small as just 5 mins of work per day, or a really small task for that day. Once you feel like you're making progress (no matter how small), you'll automatically find the incentive to focus on it more, and spend more time on it.

I'd say you're best of examining what role gaming is serving for you. If you're mentally drained from work, it's likely with or without games you're not going to progress much on more coding. If you're using games as a social outlet retreating into code (even if it's something you're passionate about) could be harmful in the long run.

Addressing why you turn to games will help lay the foundation to feel like you have more choice in how you spend your free time.

I uninstalled them, and started reading instead. When I got the urge, I would use that energy to read or focus on the side-project. Must have discipline and hold yourself accountable or have someone hold you accountable.

It's difficult, but figure out the 'why' you should stop playing games and that will give you a reason to stop so you focus on your why instead. I.E I want to stop playing games so I can spend that time with my kids and be more part of their life's etc.

Stop watching videos or reading about games. Recognize when the game developer has engineered the game to get you stuck into a feedback loop of repeating the same activities for changing some numbers (level, gear, loot, etc.) A hint is games where top players talk about 'endgame' content. In pre-internet gaming days the game would be done at that point. Check if you are actually having fun and getting enjoyment out of it or are just doing things to "keep up with the Joneses".

Break your side project down into much smaller tasks so you can get those quick dopamine hits like you do with gaming. Keep breaking the larger efforts into much smaller tasks. If something has a barrier to it, create a task which eliminates the barrier. Always be thinking "what is the next step to make progress?" The tasks should be trivial to get progress going. It should feel good to make progress, build upon that with more small tasks.

Maybe do nothing. I mean as in sit or lay down and stare at the wall or the window or the ceiling or something. Just stay like that for a while until you lose whatever urges you have. Keep your mind blank. Be comfortable doing nothing.

I find that doing nothing helps me to reset myself and allow me to chose what activity I'm going to put my attention to.

Once you're free of your urges, chose your side project, and just do it. Get moving.

While you're working, you have to resist the urge to play games or do some other activity like watching TV or mindlessly browsing the web. You might give yourself the excuse that you're only doing it to resist the temptation to play games, but you're just replacing one addiction with another.

Also, focus is an ability you need to exercise, so the better you resist those urges, the better you'll be able to focus with time.

If you get stuck in your project, I refer you to:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19955830

Just continue by working on smaller problems at a time. When you slow down, look to accelerate. You can't go from 0 to 60 mph suddenly, but you can accelerate. It's better to move slowly than to not move at all.

If you suddenly find yourself back to playing games or otherwise wasting your own time, repeat from the start, and do nothing once more.

If the above doesn't work (probably if your gaming addiction doesn't come from procrastinating on your project), realize that gaming is a form of escapism. We use escapism to avoid facing something (or multiple things) in our lives. Something that, for lack of a better word, scares us. Everything that scares is so because we lack knowledge of it, especially how to deal with it. You need to figure out what that is and face it as best you can. By facing it, you learn about it, and by learning about it, it ceases to be scary. You don't need to deal with it perfectly, but often not dealing with it is worse than doing a poor job of doing so. Once you've done your best at dealing with it, realize that "your best" means you couldn't have done better. By definition, you gave it your all, so there's nothing to regret in how you dealt with it. By your ability when you dealt with the problem, it was impossible to do better. You can now move on from that problem and, hopefully, your need for escapism.

I haven’t been really addicted to gaming since university. But now I largely look for ways to add gaming systems to my everyday life, such as travel hacking (optimize the points, miles and credits I earn for air and train travel) or adding incentives to new habits I want to adopt (minor cheat days if I’ve gone to the gym a certain amount of days in a row).

I personally was never addicted, but once tried to instill interest for game programming in kids who were beginning to show signs of addictive behaviour. I still believe it's a good approach, though it didn't work too well in my case.

It is only addiction if you feel withdrawal effects and you can't live without it. If you have a full-time job, family and the complexities of life, and after you are done with your duties, you play games instead of writing a side project... you are fine.

Now, between you and me. Are you side projects VERY GOOD? Is it your main passion and mission in life? Are they ideas which if enough time, got a lot of potential or are they just something you work with the hopes of it making it big?

If they aren't, you will play games or do something else. And that's fine. Most ideas and projects suck. Instead of worrying about this, play the game... and look around, when you find something truly exciting, you will do it.

Also, let you play as much games as you want, given that you do your duties, and set aside like 30-1h for self-development as part of your duty. Do programming exercises, read programming books, or things that are important on your field of expertise. Also go to meetups with other cofounders and keep looking around.

That way you are good for the job market, you chill playing your games and you keep looking for a great opportunity.

I'm also without any very good ideas atm, I browse around, checking for ideas and exploring markets. That's normal.

Don't listen to PG or people that say that you should just build something. This is only good for an Angel investor or incubator due to 0.0001% of the people that do it and find a good market BY LUCK, they go big and incubators and angel investors take their cut.

You only live once, 1 life. Enjoy it! And if you end up seeing a problem that you can fix or find something worth dedicating your life to, then I believe your brain and your body will want to do it instead of playing games(or anything that gives you pleasure/fun/challenges). Also, send me a message if you find that, because I'm doing practically the same as you.

I still play games, after 8 hours of work I like to take my mind off everything and just focus on something else. In the weekend I manage to find more time and to motivate myself many of my side projects are actually game-related.

I didn't, I focused on my forum discussion/social media addiction instead.

You can make a side project that is related to your favorite game, in fact I recommend it.