Curing my youtube addiction

A little more than two weeks ago I decided to completely stop using youtube as I found myself wasting a lot of time just mindlessly watching random videos.

Whenever I was at my computer and got a bit bored the first thing I would do was always open up youtube. Only after adding youtube.com to my hosts file did I notice just how bad it had gotten.

I realised I had developed muscle memory just to open youtube, which became painfully apparent when I started trying to do so subconsciously whenever I got bored.

I know that a lot of people have a similar problem with phones and scrolling social media, but because I've carried around dumb phones my whole life up until very recently, I've never felt the urge to use my phone when I'm outside. Besides, I don't really use social media so I don't have anything particularly interesting to do with my phone apart from reading, playing with some emulator or tinkering with something in termux.

I was bored for the first few days, but after that I actually started enjoying my time more. The worst thing about youtube by far was how much time I'd waste everyday. I'd get home from work and before I knew it, it was already way past midnight and there was no way I would wake up feeling rested.

But now I have so much more time for actually meaningful things and without needing to stay up late. If I have trouble falling a sleep I just pick up a book and within five pages I'm already dead tired. So far I only have positive things to say. I've had similar experiences in the past with other things, for example with sugary foods, which I've quit multiple times for periods of up to multiple months but to which I inevitably came back to. Since I'm not great at being moderate it's much easier just to cut out the craving entirely, then constantly having to deal with the urge to take "just one more".

If you are in a similar situation, whether that be with something stupid like youtube or something else entirely and you know what you need to do to improve some aspect of your life, do it. I strongly encourage you to take a step outside of your comfort zone, because for me personally, that's where I've learned the most about myself.