> Another key bit seems to be not not doing the thing. That's a hard fight.
I was told to replace bad habits with other things. It didn't have to be some "good habit", but there had to be something else to fill the void left by the thing I wasn't doing. I had a list (I still have it somewhere) of healthy things that I enjoy, that I can do instead of falling into a porn binge (its been almost 5 years since I last willingly looked at porn) or a YouTube hole (that's been less than a week, small steps).
Having a list of other things to do, things I enjoy, made stopping unhealthy habits a lot easier. I didn't strap myself to "being more productive", rather I just replaced bad habits that produce dopamine hits with enjoyable things that produce dopamine hits.
>I was told to replace bad habits with other things. It didn't have to be some "good habit", but there had to be something else to fill the void left by the thing I wasn't doing
Ding ding. I'm precisely in the process of replacing my brainless reddit scrolling with old retro games on an emulator.
The point is precisely that I'm not about to replace an absolutely brainless activity with reading literature or learning category theory. I'm replacing the brainless way I use to wind down with a more constructive/"structured" way to wind down.
I was told to replace bad habits with other things. It didn't have to be some "good habit", but there had to be something else to fill the void left by the thing I wasn't doing. I had a list (I still have it somewhere) of healthy things that I enjoy, that I can do instead of falling into a porn binge (its been almost 5 years since I last willingly looked at porn) or a YouTube hole (that's been less than a week, small steps).
Having a list of other things to do, things I enjoy, made stopping unhealthy habits a lot easier. I didn't strap myself to "being more productive", rather I just replaced bad habits that produce dopamine hits with enjoyable things that produce dopamine hits.