Youtube and Anime's Sucking My Time - Help

[SIGMA_1234]

Hey winners,

I just watched 7 episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion this weekend, and I am not proud of myself.

For the past year, I have resorted to watching a shit ton of Youtube videos (educational and otherwise) and anime to numb one problem in my life: anxiety. Anxiety on not knowing what my career would like, and social anxiety, too. I am doing much, much better now than I was for the last few months, so there's not much of a problem now on that front.

However, old habits die hard. What's worse is that this was a created habit. I generally like to watch Youtube videos and anime minimally to keep up with pop culture and enjoy myself from time to time, but I have the problem of watching it before I finish my tasks, and I tend to binge, too.

What I've done so far: just tell myself to stop it. I'm just relying on pure willpower here, and I just end up not doing my goals when I give in (which is most of the time). What's worse was that I was totally free this weekend, but I felt like I wasted it away instead of learning and moving towards my goals..

Anyone here have any tips and suggestions to curb too much Youtube and anime? Or do you guys just recommend me to drop all of this at once?

 

[Wifty]

I recommend you to post less and take more action.

I agree.
You started like determined but a lot of your writing is talking and thinking rather than doing and reporting.



My advice about it :
Cut it 100%

Allow yourself to watch it only on weeekends, or every two days, maximum one hour.

These are time wasting activities and I call them comfort fixes.

If it wasn't available to you you would be doing other things.


The thing with comfort fixes is it makes mediocrity, unpleasant and unrewarding life Feel acceptable.



Two years ago for a few months I COMPLETELY got rid of video games, porn, snacking, hot showers and internet in daytime.
I was allowed to eat as much as I wanted only after 7pm.

I found out that my life was fucking boring and not at all rewarding.
I had one thing to do and it was getting my social freedom up.

I was afraid of it and looked for ways to deal with these feelings and these ways were what i said above. So i Cut it out.
I told myself "oh, i have to do this, and want a cigarette now. But no, because it's a lie, it's me trying to make shit smell pretty. Oh now i want to eat junk food, only a little. No. I want to play video games... No.
I stay here and sit here with the truth that i have one thing to do, and only one thing to do. I either do it or I don't, i'd rather feel shitty because it's the reflection of my poor choices than making myself more comfortable and get oblivious about the truly unrewardingly boring life i led"

I did what i had to do.

Sometimes easier and sometimes harder.


I Also found out that i began to look for other, more productive comfort fixes. I was oblivious to this at the start and then realized it was another, yet more productive and rewarding, way to avoid doing the ONE THING i decided to do : get out and talk to girls.
These other comfort fixes were reading, running, swimming, and leaning languages.
Tricky. Fear does this.

You can choose to be its slave or live on your own terms

 

[Sin Silver]

I take it your unemployed, and from my experience that's a really hard time to be productive and motivated.

My advice is you need to start forcing your self into a productive routine. Force yourself to job hunt or work nine to five during the week. This can be be job searching, interview prep, CV writing, research, whatever you need to be productive.

In your free time, try to find hobbies and activities that focus on your health and personal development. Sports, cooking, hanging with friends, reading etc.

When your efforts start producing results, you'll start to get that dopamine and serotonin hit your use to getting form games and anime,.

Even when you are being productive, you still need time to sit and space out, or wallow in your exhaustion. I recommend that you allow yourself 1 hour of games/anime a day, but these should be at the end of it, a reward for all your hard work.

 

[AdamHill]

You should download (free) http://stayfocusd.com/

Enter the sites you want to block for a specific amount of time and then hit "nuclear option" They are irreversibly blocked for the specified period.

For your phone, try Freedom or Liberate.

 

[Thebastard]

Neon Genesis? That series was depressing as hell. If you must watch anime make it Attack on Titan lol

Here is what you do.

Make a deal with yourself. For example: after 8pm I can watch whatever I want without restriction. Or I must do X hours of work without fail. Then reward yourself. Schedule it all out. There is a good app called Toggl which allows you to log how much time you spend on anything and everything. Before you go to bed each night, make a bullet list of what you will do the following day. Tick those boxes off before you have your fun. Look at the weekly report and try and do better the next week and then the next.

If you still struggle, then we can only assume that you aren't uncomfortable enough with your current situation to generate the desire to work more and fany about less.

 

[DNPTHC]

I would just block youtube for a period of time and cancel your anime subscriptions.

 

[Radical]

Spent the better part of the last 3 days watching and reading Berserk

Tbh I just try and read the manga as fast as humanly possible and move on. When im hooked to something im hooked

 

[SIGMA_1234]

Oh hey, didn't expect this to be revived lmao

What changed in 5 months? I just forced myself to work without any anime (watched one with 4 or 5 seasons and another with 1 season with a movie tie-in during quarantine). But, I still struggle with Youtube: the king of making me procrastinate. Fuck.

Neon Genesis? That series was depressing as hell. If you must watch anime make it Attack on Titan lol

Lmao I don't know why, but I really, really loved Neon Genesis Evangelion. I really like realistic depressing and tragic stories because there is just so much cliche happy ending animes as of now. Lmao. And also, religious symbolism just gets me. For Attack on Titan, I just watched S1 4 years ago, may reward myself with the final 3 seasons if I feel like it haha

I would just block youtube for a period of time and cancel your anime subscriptions.

I don't have anime subscriptions (I have my... *ehem* ways *ehem*). But Youtube, again, the king of making me procrastinate.

Here's what I really want to do: I want to change my fun time from anime and watching shit -> meeting and being intimate with girls. I really am sick of being addicted to watching series, anime, and Youtube now. I would rather just: explore new places; meet, flirt, and be intimate with girls; brainstorm ideas to make money; and just learn new shit in my free time.

What I will do:

-) be VERY selective with anime and series now. I was a sucker for niche, non-mainstream anime before, but that has to change. I wasn't even able to use it as a talking point socially. IF I will watch anything, it should be because: I have free time, and a good amount fo people are watching it.
-) Youtube is tricky. Most of my web design tutorials come from here, so the temptation to watch different shit from what I'm supposed to do is very high because of the environment. I think I remember there is a Chrome extension to block the Recommended Feed of Youtube. I will have to research what it's called again. Will report back if I found it.

 

[NotYourAverageNerd]

For the past year, I have resorted to watching a shit ton of Youtube videos (educational and otherwise) and anime to numb one problem in my life: anxiety.

I'm largely the same way (though usually I'm watching documentaries about space or planes or electronics or something), but have only recently been able to keep it from being a problem. You already twigged the key here: it's doing something for you: it's an escape from your anxiety.

It will be almost impossible to quit as long as your anxiety is still there and videos/anime help with it.
Fixes that focus on just stopping you from watching anime/yt or whatever will just push you to something else AND deplete all of your willpower in the meantime.

So your options are to get rid of your anxiety, or find something more productive to allay it. It's not a straightforward thing, but I'd say instead of "wasting" willpower just NOT doing something, "spend" it on actively working to address your anxiety.

During the (brief) period of my life where I had friends, a couple girls, and meaningful work (near the end of school, right before corona hit ), my youtube habit just disappeared without even trying. Same thing happened with porn. During my ~3 month "mini golden era" (slept with 7 girls in 3 months, most multiple times), I had zero drive to watch porn, because the "gap" in my life it had been filling was filled with the real deal. Point is I don't bother trying to "control" my urge to watch youtube/netflix/porn anymore, I recognize that, for now, it's got a purpose, and have stopped beating myself up for watching it. I know that once that purpose disappears, I'll just stop naturally, so I focus on that purpose.

Instead of just fighting the urge, use it as an indicator of what to work on. When you feel the urge, stop and think about how you feel, what specifically is on your mind that's causing you anxiety RIGHT NOW, and either write it down to come back to later, or immeditely try to address that thing itself.

I think like a lot of things, trying to rely on willpower alone is a losing strategy, as long as something is helping you in some way, you'll never drop it forever.
Similar kind of thing as with dieting, nowadays I set up my diet to play my lack of willpower against losing weight - right now (my 8% goal is coming up in three weeks and I've got a long way to go) I literally have no food in the house. I have to leave the house and bike a couple miles to get food, it makes it SO much of a pain that it's easier to get distracted from it and do something else instead (which ironically, is pretty often watching youtube videos), so I don't expend any willpower to NOT get food, even when I'm really hungry.

 

[Vice]

I refuse to watch new TV shows because I know that I will feel the need to complete the series. It's like an alcoholic relapse; just don't even tempt it.

On a side note, NGE is one of the three animes I have patience for, but I haven't watched any of that material in over seven years.

 

[ILLuminaughty]

You should download (free) http://stayfocusd.com/

Enter the sites you want to block for a specific amount of time and then hit "nuclear option" They are irreversibly blocked for the specified period.

For your phone, try Freedom or Liberate.

FREEDOM is fucking incredible! I block pretty much everything about 15 hours a day including when I sleep.

That way you force productivity and you know your precious dopamine will be waiting for you after the block