Aren’t you addicted to YouTube?
Yesterday I was talking to my best friend about our daily screen time. After following the guide that I shared a month ago, I managed to drop my screen time to 1,5 hours a day. It used to be 4…Yeah, I know. I’m preaching the SMD but I had 4 hours a day on screen time? Well, answering e-mails, communicating with people from work, and talking to my close friends and family on WhatsApp added up to 4 hours a day.
In the past, it used to be even more, all due to YouTube. Instead of Instagram, and TikTok I found my next drug, which was YouTube videos and Shorts. Whenever I didn’t want to be on my phone, I’d do the exact same thing on my computer.
But a year ago I decided to change this habit.
My friend, who was struggling with the same thing, decided to do the same, and we both noticed a very easy detachment from this platform after we followed two simple steps.
#1 We deleted the YouTube app
This might sound extremely hard, and easier than done, but it’s the way to go.
Delete YouTube from your phone and block the website from your Safari.
This way, whenever you want to watch something while eating, or before you go to sleep, you’ll simply won’t be able to.
Since I used to be a YouTube connoisseur, I found three things that helped me replace this habit:
I started reading books before going to sleep. Either physical books or with an Amazon Kindle
I started focusing on my food while eating, which really helped me with my appetite and satiation. This way I also managed to eat less.
Whenever I had the need to watch something, I simply went on a walk or tried to fulfil a task, which made me more productive
#2 Started using the Unhook Chrome Extension
If you have no clue what this is, that’s okay. I also didn’t.
Unhook is a Google Chrome Extension that helps you remove YouTube distractions.
How?
Well, it’s simple. Whenever you type in YouTube.com and you go on the website it’s simply a blank page.
This extension removes all videos, shorts, subscriptions, and even recommended videos.
For you to watch something you need to type in the title and find the video you want to watch. While watching it, this Chrome extension removes all recommended videos, so you don’t go down any rabbit hole, and it can also remove recommended shorts, comments, etc.
This is very powerful and it helped me a lot with removing my YouTube addiction on my PC.
I hope these tips can help you on your SMD journey ;)
See you next time.
