Do people have any advice to help ?
The post suggested going on walks without the phone.
Setup your charging location for the phone outside of your bedroom and have a no phone in the bedroom rule. No phone at the dinner table rule. A no phone in <wherever the phone is usually leading to unwanted outcomes> rule.
If you actually have to allow the phone to interrupt you (do you _really_?) designate a space where you'll take those interruptions, rather than allowing the phone usage to spill into spaces where you've designated the phone off limits.
Take activities that you might otherwise do on the phone but could do on a regular computer and stop doing them on the phone. At least you can't be doing them all the time. (e.g. I've never logged in to HN or Reddit from a phone, and it's been >10 years since I've done email on a mobile device...).
In other words, you're only checking your phone because that is more interesting than whatever else you were doing at that moment. So the key is to replace that boring activity with a more interesting one.
This is based on the theory that the REASON you keep checking your phone, HN, etc. is that you are compulsively anxious about "missing out" on information, so your brain seeks it at every opportunity, and the Internet and its services have an unending supply. The antidote is to PROVE to yourself that the compulsion is illusory, and nothing bad happens if you resist it.
Over time, you can extend the time between these checks longer and longer, and begin to notice that it's OK to miss even MOST online content, really only occasionally and with INTENT stop to consume the stuff you ACTUALLY care about. Unfriend Facebook contacts that have nothing real to say. Unsubscribe from everything that doesn't truly interest you. Set your phone on 'Do Not Disturb' outside business hours.
YOU decide what content and when you want to consume. Never browse feeds nor recommendation engines. They are intentionally tuned to be as addictive as possible, to keep you hooked, to serve you more ads.
The idea that you shouldn't be binging on low-quality food 24/7 is a no-brainer to us. One day we'll figure out that hygiene and nutrition rules apply to information too.
We're working on a service that allows you to do this while still being able to read the blogs and newsletters you like. I built this specifically to deal with this problem:
We're still in beta so it's free to use. I would love the feedback from any HN reader. You can email me at the email in my bio if you have any questions or feedback.
Your life other than your phone encourages checking it.
Long commute to work? Plenty of situations you'd rather not be in? Limited freedom to choose how you spend your time?
Yes? Then being in your phone is a coping mechanism.
The solution is, there is no simple solution - you need to have financial freedom to not be forced into situations you'd rather not be in.
Other than that, if you're under 30, then a phone is simply a free tool for gathering new experiences and it's perfectly normal to check it every 5 minutes - you're supposed to be curious. It'll work itself out - sooner or later checking instagram and facebook simply gets old. Twitter opinions get repetitive and boring. Even HackerNews becomes predictable and boring.
It's like anything else - sooner or later you figure out what works for you and you focus more on that, then the things that weren't serving you will largely fall away on their own, but it may take a decade or two to get there. Just don't have children until you're sure, everything else you can figure out isn't working for you and let it go :)
So true. It's interesting that the most upvoted comments on HN are those which treat this as a cause.
"Leave your phone in another room", "Turn it off", "Throw it away"...
These ideas are themselves the product of the global lobotomy. They are characterized by an inability to see that things are much more complex than they appear on the surface.
Of course, superficial ideas are more likely to be popular. This is because the vast majority of people are system 1 'instinctive' thinkers.
The idea that the underlying cause might be "people have insufficient control over their own lives" is not on the globalist agenda. This argument is far too sophisticated and abstract for most people to grasp. People will not even want to acknowledge it to themselves.
IMO, it's precisely the lack of control over our lives (at the hands of the education system, governments and corporations) which is forcing us to accept a passive consumer role. But very few people really want to be a consumer, they just don't see an alternative.
The colors are part of the reward system so turning them off makes your phone pretty bland and over time less rewarding. This is not an immediate fix.
I work 6 days a week (solo startup founder), and follow a regimen of a digital sabbath on Sundays. Which essentially means, not using any electronics (I do take an occasional phone call from a friend, but nothing more). I spend the day with my family playing board games, picnics at local parks and reading paper books.
Still work to do though, as I've partially replaced that habit with frequently checking news websites. I think the advice in the blog post is great -- go for a long walk without your phone. Do this once a day if possible. Start to gently break the habit.
GoodTime uses the Pomodoro technique to have you concentrate on a task for 25 minutes, then take a 5 minute break. Your 5 minute break could be you checking your email or whatever else, but also take break from sitting which can cause other health issues.
When the 5 minutes are up, back to work. Stop making excuses to yourself. Only 25 minutes till you can check your feeds again.
I'd also suggest using the Loop Habit Tracker app to keep track of habits you're trying to develop over a longer period. If you can perform a task continuously for 30 days, you shouldn't need to be reminded anymore to do it, it becomes a habit. This app lets you drop reminders as widgets onto your launcher which should draw your attention before your social media does. (Take your social media apps off the launcher home screen so there's an extra step you need to go through to access them).
Also, on the computer, install LeechBlock or other similar addon and blacklist all of your social media and other sites which cause you to procrastinate.
Seriously. Think about it this way: if you’re going on a diet, the first thing to do is make sure you don’t have cookies in the house. If you do, you’ll eat cookies. In much the same way, something as small as leaving your phone in another room will prevent you from reaching for your phone out of habit. Start with that.