Perhaps write out some rules or guidelines for Discord use and follow them for a period of time and see what works, what doesn’t work, what you noticed, etc.? That’s what I’m doing and having a set of written out rules or guidelines lets me refer to them and tweak them over time as I notice things about how they work or don’t, or what nudges me in a good direction, etc. You asked for direct tips though, here’s what I’ve found that helps me thus far:
categorize what you do in each server. what is the purpose of being on each server you’re a member of? knowing the purpose helps
catalog what kinds of activities you do in each server, and what kind of content you interact with the most for each server. knowing how you spend your time in each server lets you check how well aligned your time spending is with your goals and/or the overall purpose of that server
schedule a time to review your Discord activities and how well they align with what you want.
block / hide or mute channels on servers that are mostly full of memes. Most servers seem to have a dedicated meme channel so this is usually straightforward. I don’t do this personally, because I do enjoy occasionally memescrolling on the weekends, but it should help.
notice what times of day you’re actively interacting with others on Discord. are you doing productive goal-aligned stuff during work hours and that’s not interfering with whatever you’re working on? that’s probably fine, unless that’s just procrastinating a task you need to get done via doing another productive thing. are you passively scrolling through content while in a line or waiting for something? and more.
I think if you have a good idea of when you’re engaging with what kinds of content and partaking in which activities, that’ll help increase your deliberate use of Discord (or other services / platforms too). Writing stuff down helps, cause you can more highly trust written memory than pure memory, I forget stuff all the time personally and rely heavily on writing and other memory prostheses.
As someone who hasn’t fallen into (let’s call it the meme pit of Discord), but sometimes does so for reddit:
Any tips for not doing that (or other unproductive things) as I begin to use it more?
Perhaps write out some rules or guidelines for Discord use and follow them for a period of time and see what works, what doesn’t work, what you noticed, etc.? That’s what I’m doing and having a set of written out rules or guidelines lets me refer to them and tweak them over time as I notice things about how they work or don’t, or what nudges me in a good direction, etc. You asked for direct tips though, here’s what I’ve found that helps me thus far:
categorize what you do in each server. what is the purpose of being on each server you’re a member of? knowing the purpose helps
catalog what kinds of activities you do in each server, and what kind of content you interact with the most for each server. knowing how you spend your time in each server lets you check how well aligned your time spending is with your goals and/or the overall purpose of that server
schedule a time to review your Discord activities and how well they align with what you want.
block / hide or mute channels on servers that are mostly full of memes. Most servers seem to have a dedicated meme channel so this is usually straightforward. I don’t do this personally, because I do enjoy occasionally memescrolling on the weekends, but it should help.
notice what times of day you’re actively interacting with others on Discord. are you doing productive goal-aligned stuff during work hours and that’s not interfering with whatever you’re working on? that’s probably fine, unless that’s just procrastinating a task you need to get done via doing another productive thing. are you passively scrolling through content while in a line or waiting for something? and more.
I think if you have a good idea of when you’re engaging with what kinds of content and partaking in which activities, that’ll help increase your deliberate use of Discord (or other services / platforms too). Writing stuff down helps, cause you can more highly trust written memory than pure memory, I forget stuff all the time personally and rely heavily on writing and other memory prostheses.