Controlling Phone Addiction by BUYING A SECOND PHONE!

[ZenSwift]

Hey guys, I would like to share with you one of the BEST techniques I have found for controlling my phone addiction: BUYING A SECOND PHONE! 

 

Super duper counterintuitive! Since buying my second phone, I have found that my addiction to YouTube has completely VANISHED overnight! 

 

I still like to use YouTube to access Leo's videos and whatnot, just having it on the main phone is not good. Having YouTube on my main phone is the equivalent to keeping a crack pipe that's ready to smoke in my pocket at all times. I inevitably always waste at least an hour when YouTube is on my main phone. This is because I would use YouTube a lot for music and podcasts, and now I just use Spotify. Spotify is way less distracting than YouTube with their clickbait thumbnails and #shorts.

 

• Buy yourself one of those refurbished phones on Amazon, and you'll be happy with the price and the performance you will get. 
• On your main phone, delete all the apps that distract you. For me the big one was YouTube. But don't stop there, nuke all the apps that distract you like crazy. 
• Then, dedicate your second phone as your “distraction phone”. This is where you can put all your distracting apps.
• Then, set rules as to where your distraction phone is allowed to be located.
  • You want to have your distraction phone to be restricted from the areas that create the highest distraction opportunities. For example, my distraction phone is not allowed to be in my office, my bedroom, my bathroom or at the dinner table. 
• Create habits for you to turn off your distraction phone during certain hours.
• I'll usually also create habits of turning off my main phone just so no one can contact me while I'm working in the morning.
  • Also keep your main phone on "do not disturb" for the first 12 hours of your waketime.

Hope this helps!

[mmKay]

This is a good idea. Leo said he does have a second PC with this forum blocked so that he can work on his book without having to resist temptations

So this would be the equivalent. 

[supremeyingyang]

@ZenSwift

Great Idea, I think about the same, but with the work phone and the freedom phone;)

[effortlesslumen]

https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater

This is helpful. I used this to deactivate youtube on my phone without being root . But be careful what you delete, you could end up breaking your phone. You should be on the safe side when sticking to the recommended list in the software options. 

Its android only.

Edited February 8, 2023 by effortlesslumen

[effortlesslumen]

Enhancer for YouTube™  - search for this web browser extension. It lets you customize your youtube to a certain degree. Like hide, related videos (to not get triggered to click another video) , hide comments (comments are sometimes useful), adblock, and others. Those simple tweaks are great to use youtube in a more aware way and educational.  What also helps me is setting an intention of use before using it mindlessly. After struggeling with this as well, i made a similar approach and got more control of this tool. 

Edited February 8, 2023 by effortlesslumen