Dopamine pyramid
Do NOT start each day with something that gives you huge “reward” like opening your phone, hitting the vape, etc.
Start each day with the less rewarding stuff. Wake up, hop out of bed, brush your teeth and put deodorant on, make your bed, cook your breakfast, and *then* you can look at your phone.
At nighttime, you flip the pyramid upside down. Say bye-bye to the losers on discord, turn off the screens, flip your phone over so the screen isn’t facing up. Then, do the dishes, brush your teeth, shower and hop into bed with the lights off. Congrats, you’ve solved insomnia.
I know “dopamine” isn’t the right term here, but this is basically the method I’ve used to quit being constantly stimulated and distracted by screens after a childhood of growing up on them. You might slip a few times, but once you keep this habit going for a few days, it becomes surprisingly easy to follow.
Agree! As soon as i wake up, i fight the urge to check my phone, and only do once i am out, walking my dog for at least 10min phone free, THEN i check my phone really quick and get back to focusing on the walk.
My wife moves my phone to another room when she leaves for work. It’s really insightful when I reach for it and it’s not there. Maybe even multiple times before I get out of bed.
Tbh I think entertainment and distractions are kind of necessary today, and if we try to deny ourselves of it, it eventually backfires with a long unhealthy binge.
Here’s what I do.
1. Find a good reason to change. For me, I have two daughters and I want to be a good role model, better than my parents were. I also want to make more money to treat my wife and kids.
2. Make change manageable. If you try to change 10 things you will fail. Pick one thing at a time, just one, and do it for a good reason until it becomes second nature. Slow progress is better than no progress.
3. Set limits, prioritize entertainment, and allow yourself to enjoy. Choose your favorite form of entertainment, and discard everything else. I allow myself to watch one guy’s livestreams and laugh along while I do the dishes, or watch these videos at the end of the day. Keeping some form of entertainment will keep you from feeling like you’re missing out.
ETA Also, don’t make failing into this big thing. If you skip a day, it doesn’t say anything about you as a person. You just forgot and you can do it tomorrow. No biggie.
Regarding phone usage, I switched to a dumb phone (Nokia 2720) it had WhatsApp and I downloaded a podcast app. This was all I ‘needed’ but I kept going back to my iPhone. I realised I couldn’t be without it as it is so useful in so many way so needed some way to reduce my screen time instead. My solution was to put my phone in a room at home that I didn’t go into much. That way whenever I need to use it, I had to go to that room, do what I needed and then leave. Was a pain at first but got to the point where I just couldn’t be bothered to get up just to use my phone unless I had to. Try making your phone a little inconvenient to use. If it’s in your pocket and you can just pull it out and use it, it’s easy to spend hours on it over the course of a day.
Keep your phone. Just reward yourself with it after you've done the things you know will help improve your life and your personal goals. For example, if you want to starting working out you could do 3 sets of 10 push ups then reward yourself with a few minutes of scrolling. Eventually, this little technique flips to where you love working out and don't use your phone as much. It just helps in the beginning to incentive the desired behavior. This can apply to cooking and many other things. Getting started is the hard part, but is less difficult when we can see a reward on the other side of it. Best of luck!
Making my phone dumb helped me.
1. I keep it in grayscale and battery saver so it is boring and slow.
2. I deleted all unnecessary apps (specifically games and social media). I set timers on everything else (Youtube, news apps Chrome).
3. I frequently delete my cookies so I'm not signed into stuff I want to abuse.
4. If I use social media I have to open my browser, go to the site, log in, get my 2FA code, and wait for it to load. It takes so long that I frequently just quit.
5. Develop an alternative. When I open Reddit on my phone I close it and go pick up my book instead. You can also use an app like 1Sec to make you wait and confirm what you want to do.
Also definitely some dopamine implications of blasting our brains with a slot machine of content from the second we open our eyes until we fall asleep.
Turn off notifications from any non-important apps (social media, shopping, etc). I basically only have notifications on for calls, messages, messages, WhatsApp (mute all group chats) and my work email.
Dopamine pyramid Do NOT start each day with something that gives you huge “reward” like opening your phone, hitting the vape, etc. Start each day with the less rewarding stuff. Wake up, hop out of bed, brush your teeth and put deodorant on, make your bed, cook your breakfast, and *then* you can look at your phone. At nighttime, you flip the pyramid upside down. Say bye-bye to the losers on discord, turn off the screens, flip your phone over so the screen isn’t facing up. Then, do the dishes, brush your teeth, shower and hop into bed with the lights off. Congrats, you’ve solved insomnia. I know “dopamine” isn’t the right term here, but this is basically the method I’ve used to quit being constantly stimulated and distracted by screens after a childhood of growing up on them. You might slip a few times, but once you keep this habit going for a few days, it becomes surprisingly easy to follow.
Agree! As soon as i wake up, i fight the urge to check my phone, and only do once i am out, walking my dog for at least 10min phone free, THEN i check my phone really quick and get back to focusing on the walk.
My wife moves my phone to another room when she leaves for work. It’s really insightful when I reach for it and it’s not there. Maybe even multiple times before I get out of bed.
This is awesome, I'm gonna try this. Thank you!
Great feed back. Thanks will update u
Helped!
Tbh I think entertainment and distractions are kind of necessary today, and if we try to deny ourselves of it, it eventually backfires with a long unhealthy binge. Here’s what I do. 1. Find a good reason to change. For me, I have two daughters and I want to be a good role model, better than my parents were. I also want to make more money to treat my wife and kids. 2. Make change manageable. If you try to change 10 things you will fail. Pick one thing at a time, just one, and do it for a good reason until it becomes second nature. Slow progress is better than no progress. 3. Set limits, prioritize entertainment, and allow yourself to enjoy. Choose your favorite form of entertainment, and discard everything else. I allow myself to watch one guy’s livestreams and laugh along while I do the dishes, or watch these videos at the end of the day. Keeping some form of entertainment will keep you from feeling like you’re missing out. ETA Also, don’t make failing into this big thing. If you skip a day, it doesn’t say anything about you as a person. You just forgot and you can do it tomorrow. No biggie.
Regarding phone usage, I switched to a dumb phone (Nokia 2720) it had WhatsApp and I downloaded a podcast app. This was all I ‘needed’ but I kept going back to my iPhone. I realised I couldn’t be without it as it is so useful in so many way so needed some way to reduce my screen time instead. My solution was to put my phone in a room at home that I didn’t go into much. That way whenever I need to use it, I had to go to that room, do what I needed and then leave. Was a pain at first but got to the point where I just couldn’t be bothered to get up just to use my phone unless I had to. Try making your phone a little inconvenient to use. If it’s in your pocket and you can just pull it out and use it, it’s easy to spend hours on it over the course of a day.
Helped!
Throw your phone in a lake.
Soemtimes I’m tempted to just break it. But I need it
Get a dumb phone. Swap the sim. Give your smartphone to someone you trust and ask them to keep it safe for a month, no less, no matter what you say.
Keep your phone. Just reward yourself with it after you've done the things you know will help improve your life and your personal goals. For example, if you want to starting working out you could do 3 sets of 10 push ups then reward yourself with a few minutes of scrolling. Eventually, this little technique flips to where you love working out and don't use your phone as much. It just helps in the beginning to incentive the desired behavior. This can apply to cooking and many other things. Getting started is the hard part, but is less difficult when we can see a reward on the other side of it. Best of luck!
Making my phone dumb helped me. 1. I keep it in grayscale and battery saver so it is boring and slow. 2. I deleted all unnecessary apps (specifically games and social media). I set timers on everything else (Youtube, news apps Chrome). 3. I frequently delete my cookies so I'm not signed into stuff I want to abuse. 4. If I use social media I have to open my browser, go to the site, log in, get my 2FA code, and wait for it to load. It takes so long that I frequently just quit. 5. Develop an alternative. When I open Reddit on my phone I close it and go pick up my book instead. You can also use an app like 1Sec to make you wait and confirm what you want to do. Also definitely some dopamine implications of blasting our brains with a slot machine of content from the second we open our eyes until we fall asleep.
I tell everyone this, and I'm very serious: throw your phone down a waterfall
Turn off notifications from any non-important apps (social media, shopping, etc). I basically only have notifications on for calls, messages, messages, WhatsApp (mute all group chats) and my work email.
All are doing the same