I frequently got trapped browsing the internet on my phone, so I removed the web browser from my phone. You would think that I would just reinstall the browser, but adding 5 extra seconds delay is apparently sufficient for me to have impulse control.
It really is surprising just how much you can get from a very little amount of time. When I quit smoking (and even some of the times I unsuccessfully tried) one simple trick I used when I felt the urge was to simply say “I’ll go in 5 minutes” and resume whatever I was doing.
Every single time it was 30 minutes, an hour, a couple of hours later that the next urge for a smoke returned. Moreover, I never really felt I was waiting in anticipation of that 5 minutes to expire.
Now, I don’t think that is what ultimately accomplished the quitting but it did address one of the problems that will lead to not quitting.
Procrastinating on bad habits is a powerful thing! Saying “never” leads to an internal conflict, but saying “later” often doesn’t… and as we procrastinators already know, it often has the same result.
I only use this method randomly, but it has about 50% success rate… I mean the chance that “later” becomes “not today”, without having to make an explicit decision about not doing it today.
I like to use the add-on LeechBlockNG (I don’t know if you can use it on mobile). You can use it to outright block sites, but also delay access to the site before you actually enter, and also put time limits. The delay is something I haven’t seen other apps/add-ons use a similar feature, and it’s kind of a deal-breaker, since it solves the problem of “instant gratification” that makes social media (etc.) addicting.
I frequently got trapped browsing the internet on my phone, so I removed the web browser from my phone. You would think that I would just reinstall the browser, but adding 5 extra seconds delay is apparently sufficient for me to have impulse control.
It really is surprising just how much you can get from a very little amount of time. When I quit smoking (and even some of the times I unsuccessfully tried) one simple trick I used when I felt the urge was to simply say “I’ll go in 5 minutes” and resume whatever I was doing.
Every single time it was 30 minutes, an hour, a couple of hours later that the next urge for a smoke returned. Moreover, I never really felt I was waiting in anticipation of that 5 minutes to expire.
Now, I don’t think that is what ultimately accomplished the quitting but it did address one of the problems that will lead to not quitting.
Procrastinating on bad habits is a powerful thing! Saying “never” leads to an internal conflict, but saying “later” often doesn’t… and as we procrastinators already know, it often has the same result.
I only use this method randomly, but it has about 50% success rate… I mean the chance that “later” becomes “not today”, without having to make an explicit decision about not doing it today.
SelfControl is also good for this.
I like to use the add-on LeechBlockNG (I don’t know if you can use it on mobile). You can use it to outright block sites, but also delay access to the site before you actually enter, and also put time limits. The delay is something I haven’t seen other apps/add-ons use a similar feature, and it’s kind of a deal-breaker, since it solves the problem of “instant gratification” that makes social media (etc.) addicting.
I’ve successfully done this as well!