I don't think there is a silver bullet. Concentration, discipline, and will power are like a muscle; they take exercise to build up, they can be fatigued, and they atrophy when not in use. Set...
I don't think there is a silver bullet. Concentration, discipline, and will power are like a muscle; they take exercise to build up, they can be fatigued, and they atrophy when not in use.
Set small initial goals. Read a chapter, or X amount of time and hit the goal. Overtime, expand your goals. Be alert for tough days where you need to let your muscles rest and save the willpower for important items. On easier days, set bigger goals.
Consistency breeds success.
Try and replace some of your passive scrolling with more active downtime, like word puzzles like wordle, crosswords, etc. Things that aren't so mindless.
If you really have trouble, try pairing the scrolling with either goals or other activities, like don't let yourself unless you go out for a walk of x length. Generally diversify your downtime.
This is more of a meta answer, but in my experience the first thing you need to do is to sort of depersonalize from the issue and create a non-judgemental emotionally mostly neutral outlook at the...
Exemplary
This is more of a meta answer, but in my experience the first thing you need to do is to sort of depersonalize from the issue and create a non-judgemental emotionally mostly neutral outlook at the problem. This helps you to simply try various things to change the problem, evaluate if they work or not and if not, try something else.
As long as you see it sort of like "I need to change myself and become better ASAP, otherwise I'll keep screwing up and losing focus and that makes me feel terrible", it's difficult to keep trying to change it and deal with inevitably slipping and going back to your routine, whatever it is, because you take it too personally. You will likely slip up regularly in the beginning and the first things you try to change your habits may not work, which is both very frustrating.
This is not "you", this is simply a problem that exists, and there are some things you can do to try to solve it, some of which will work and others won't. Your brain is a tool and it is possible to learn to use it better or finetune it to some degree, over time.
Specifically I'd recommend doing meditation, because it does several things that may help: trains your brain to concentrate (on your breath, but it transfers), helps quiet your mind down, and makes you more aware of the processes in your mind, with less time spent on autopilot. For me the minimum that had a significant effect (in about a month and a half, so really not that long) was one 20 minute session every day, with as few exceptions as possible. However the results were not subtle, and one of them was being more able to do what I describe in the first two paragraphs.
In addition to other suggestions, I would urge you to give some thought as to whether there have been any other stressors in your life. A lot of people are in a worse mental state or physical...
In addition to other suggestions, I would urge you to give some thought as to whether there have been any other stressors in your life. A lot of people are in a worse mental state or physical state (such as long covid symptoms or weight gain) since the pandemic began, and this can manifest in subtle ways, including changes to attention.
Are you healthy? Do you have enough free time to decompress from stress? Are you getting enough social activity? Enough exercise? Enough sleep? Have there been any changes to your energy levels, optimism, etc.? Have there been any changes your normal rhythms (such as sleep schedule, bowel movements, or menstruation if you're female)? Have you acquired any aches or pains? Have you gotten any bloodwork done to check for things like Vitamin D deficiency, low testosterone levels (if you're a man), etc.?
Anecdotally, my attention span is all over the place when I'm not feeling my best. When I am under-slept, when I get a cold, when I am about to start my period, when I'm feeling sore from poor posture, etc., I am inclined to this kind of obsessive behavior. I might suddenly stay up all night playing a video game, or researching details about the history of written script, or drafting a counter-argument to some dumb throwaway comment I saw on the internet. But when I am feeling very good and full of energy, I am much more apt be mindful of my focus and redirect it as required.
If it turns out that you're healthy and happy — it really is just the phone that has changed things — you might consider the possibility that you have ADHD. It's easy to miss ADHD symptoms when the object of your hyperfocus is desirable (e.g., hobbies, school, work, and so on), but when it re-targets to something less desirable (e.g., endless scrolling, grindy video games, gambling, and so on), it can feel like something has suddenly changed — but actually all it reveals is that you have a lot less self-control than you previously realized. You just didn't know because you never had to put your self-control to the test before.
Try keeping the phone someplace you aren't. Set up a charging station at the end of your home opposite from where you spend most of your time. At night charge it somewhere away from your bedroom...
Try keeping the phone someplace you aren't. Set up a charging station at the end of your home opposite from where you spend most of your time. At night charge it somewhere away from your bedroom so you don't scroll late into the night or in the morning.
Do I have any advice on .... what were we talking about? In all seriousness, when it comes to my phone, I think it is about managing the attention seeking behaviors of the apps and the phone...
Do I have any advice on .... what were we talking about?
In all seriousness, when it comes to my phone, I think it is about managing the attention seeking behaviors of the apps and the phone itself:
I dial my notifications as far down as I can.
I have a catchall email domain that all my sign up stuff is routed into, so amazon@biz.example.com, youtube@biz.example.com, etc. all go into ads@example.com. I have notifications turned off on that account, and just scan through it every few days yo see if there was anything important.
I have quiet hours set up that turn off notifications.
I've uninstalled or disabled all the other social media apps - if I have to access something them, I do it through the browser
I put a shortcut for tildes front and center because that tends to be less noisy and distracting
My doomscroll/time waste of choose is youtube, so I have the icon for that in a place that is not easy to get to.
Personally, I only use my phone for SMS, phone calls, note taking and taking photographs. Any typical "online" stuff is simply off limits. Has been going for 2 years I think. I like it better. You...
Personally, I only use my phone for SMS, phone calls, note taking and taking photographs. Any typical "online" stuff is simply off limits. Has been going for 2 years I think. I like it better.
You need your phone for for social stuff, I get that, but Tictoc is hardly social. Instagram is ... sorta social, I guess? But I think you'll be able to to some degree be able to seperate the easy entertainment from the social.
Recently, I started with the rule that no digital stuff before 12:00. Not having that option in that time span is frustrating, but also kind of freeing. (is that the right term here? is there a better one.)
But you especially did NOT ask for tech solutions, but more behavioral changes. I guess what you could do in that regard is find as much offline entertainment as you possible can, so that your brain doesn't just have to abstain from the only possible (digital) entertainment, but also has some offline distractions to put it in place. I'm trying to implement this myself, and have a musical keyboards, my Kobo, a Stylophone Beat, books, a Otamaphone, drawing equipment, a turntable. The trick is to get your brain to see it as the same kind of easy fodder as the phone. So I see my keyboard and think I might as well try out a few melodies.
Find some things you want focus on then set aside time to do them. For me, planning helps a lot with preventing distractions. If I've set a plan to watch a movie in the afternoon, then I have a...
Find some things you want focus on then set aside time to do them. For me, planning helps a lot with preventing distractions. If I've set a plan to watch a movie in the afternoon, then I have a much easier time actually committing and staying focused throughout.
Fundamentally, I feel it's about engagement. Of course it's going to be challenging to focus on a boring and meandering lecture on a topic you don't care about (YouTube videos have a crazy amount of padding these days). I think it's much easier to focus on longform stuff that's constantly pulling you in. If it's not engaging or necessary, why worry about it?
To limit scrolling behavior (this is a totally random guess as to whether this will work or not), maybe try having some hard candy when you want to scroll, and put the phone down when the candy is...
To limit scrolling behavior (this is a totally random guess as to whether this will work or not), maybe try having some hard candy when you want to scroll, and put the phone down when the candy is dissolved. I'm thinking something small like the size of a mint. This way, maybe the taste will satisfy the dopamine craving (sugar free, hopefully), and you won't feel the need to scroll for as long?
So one of the big things that leads to too much time scrolling on this thing or that on my phone is notifications; I get a notification for this, then end up going over to something else that...
So one of the big things that leads to too much time scrolling on this thing or that on my phone is notifications; I get a notification for this, then end up going over to something else that turns into a great time suck. What I found helps with that for me is my Apple Watch; I get all my notifications on it but, well, it's kinda limited so I don't end up moving over to something else and wasting time on it. It's been a LONG time, but I also found about the same thing to be true when I was using Android devices and had an Android Wear watch.
I don't think there is a silver bullet. Concentration, discipline, and will power are like a muscle; they take exercise to build up, they can be fatigued, and they atrophy when not in use.
Set small initial goals. Read a chapter, or X amount of time and hit the goal. Overtime, expand your goals. Be alert for tough days where you need to let your muscles rest and save the willpower for important items. On easier days, set bigger goals.
Consistency breeds success.
Try and replace some of your passive scrolling with more active downtime, like word puzzles like wordle, crosswords, etc. Things that aren't so mindless.
If you really have trouble, try pairing the scrolling with either goals or other activities, like don't let yourself unless you go out for a walk of x length. Generally diversify your downtime.
This is more of a meta answer, but in my experience the first thing you need to do is to sort of depersonalize from the issue and create a non-judgemental emotionally mostly neutral outlook at the problem. This helps you to simply try various things to change the problem, evaluate if they work or not and if not, try something else.
As long as you see it sort of like "I need to change myself and become better ASAP, otherwise I'll keep screwing up and losing focus and that makes me feel terrible", it's difficult to keep trying to change it and deal with inevitably slipping and going back to your routine, whatever it is, because you take it too personally. You will likely slip up regularly in the beginning and the first things you try to change your habits may not work, which is both very frustrating.
This is not "you", this is simply a problem that exists, and there are some things you can do to try to solve it, some of which will work and others won't. Your brain is a tool and it is possible to learn to use it better or finetune it to some degree, over time.
Specifically I'd recommend doing meditation, because it does several things that may help: trains your brain to concentrate (on your breath, but it transfers), helps quiet your mind down, and makes you more aware of the processes in your mind, with less time spent on autopilot. For me the minimum that had a significant effect (in about a month and a half, so really not that long) was one 20 minute session every day, with as few exceptions as possible. However the results were not subtle, and one of them was being more able to do what I describe in the first two paragraphs.
In addition to other suggestions, I would urge you to give some thought as to whether there have been any other stressors in your life. A lot of people are in a worse mental state or physical state (such as long covid symptoms or weight gain) since the pandemic began, and this can manifest in subtle ways, including changes to attention.
Are you healthy? Do you have enough free time to decompress from stress? Are you getting enough social activity? Enough exercise? Enough sleep? Have there been any changes to your energy levels, optimism, etc.? Have there been any changes your normal rhythms (such as sleep schedule, bowel movements, or menstruation if you're female)? Have you acquired any aches or pains? Have you gotten any bloodwork done to check for things like Vitamin D deficiency, low testosterone levels (if you're a man), etc.?
Anecdotally, my attention span is all over the place when I'm not feeling my best. When I am under-slept, when I get a cold, when I am about to start my period, when I'm feeling sore from poor posture, etc., I am inclined to this kind of obsessive behavior. I might suddenly stay up all night playing a video game, or researching details about the history of written script, or drafting a counter-argument to some dumb throwaway comment I saw on the internet. But when I am feeling very good and full of energy, I am much more apt be mindful of my focus and redirect it as required.
If it turns out that you're healthy and happy — it really is just the phone that has changed things — you might consider the possibility that you have ADHD. It's easy to miss ADHD symptoms when the object of your hyperfocus is desirable (e.g., hobbies, school, work, and so on), but when it re-targets to something less desirable (e.g., endless scrolling, grindy video games, gambling, and so on), it can feel like something has suddenly changed — but actually all it reveals is that you have a lot less self-control than you previously realized. You just didn't know because you never had to put your self-control to the test before.
Try keeping the phone someplace you aren't. Set up a charging station at the end of your home opposite from where you spend most of your time. At night charge it somewhere away from your bedroom so you don't scroll late into the night or in the morning.
Do I have any advice on .... what were we talking about?
In all seriousness, when it comes to my phone, I think it is about managing the attention seeking behaviors of the apps and the phone itself:
Personally, I only use my phone for SMS, phone calls, note taking and taking photographs. Any typical "online" stuff is simply off limits. Has been going for 2 years I think. I like it better.
You need your phone for for social stuff, I get that, but Tictoc is hardly social. Instagram is ... sorta social, I guess? But I think you'll be able to to some degree be able to seperate the easy entertainment from the social.
Recently, I started with the rule that no digital stuff before 12:00. Not having that option in that time span is frustrating, but also kind of freeing. (is that the right term here? is there a better one.)
But you especially did NOT ask for tech solutions, but more behavioral changes. I guess what you could do in that regard is find as much offline entertainment as you possible can, so that your brain doesn't just have to abstain from the only possible (digital) entertainment, but also has some offline distractions to put it in place. I'm trying to implement this myself, and have a musical keyboards, my Kobo, a Stylophone Beat, books, a Otamaphone, drawing equipment, a turntable. The trick is to get your brain to see it as the same kind of easy fodder as the phone. So I see my keyboard and think I might as well try out a few melodies.
Find some things you want focus on then set aside time to do them. For me, planning helps a lot with preventing distractions. If I've set a plan to watch a movie in the afternoon, then I have a much easier time actually committing and staying focused throughout.
Fundamentally, I feel it's about engagement. Of course it's going to be challenging to focus on a boring and meandering lecture on a topic you don't care about (YouTube videos have a crazy amount of padding these days). I think it's much easier to focus on longform stuff that's constantly pulling you in. If it's not engaging or necessary, why worry about it?
To limit scrolling behavior (this is a totally random guess as to whether this will work or not), maybe try having some hard candy when you want to scroll, and put the phone down when the candy is dissolved. I'm thinking something small like the size of a mint. This way, maybe the taste will satisfy the dopamine craving (sugar free, hopefully), and you won't feel the need to scroll for as long?
So one of the big things that leads to too much time scrolling on this thing or that on my phone is notifications; I get a notification for this, then end up going over to something else that turns into a great time suck. What I found helps with that for me is my Apple Watch; I get all my notifications on it but, well, it's kinda limited so I don't end up moving over to something else and wasting time on it. It's been a LONG time, but I also found about the same thing to be true when I was using Android devices and had an Android Wear watch.