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I can't stop googling every idea that pops into my head!

9/30/2022

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Pre-game Questions: Are you ready to make a change? Are you feeling like it's heading towards an addiction, or otherwise having consequences in your life that you cannot stand any longer? If so, then read on for a solid framework of habit evolution that will honestly fix this for you. But if you're not ready, you won't stick to the steps, so you should step back and first consider the impacts of your behaviour, and what they will lead to in the long term if they continue. Maybe it's not that big a problem, maybe you're in denial about that, or maybe this is a time of well-earned break and you are really excited to be learning about subjects right now. All those possibilities are valid, and only you can know for sure.

Another common reddit post:
​How do I stop letting instant access to infinite information distract me from what I should be doing with my time?

Here's my response, that summarizes the process I have optimized over time:
"""
Build a habit that is an interrupt to your existing habit. Start with something so easy it's silly not to do it, and then ramp it up in terms of difficulty once the habit is established.
We are a whole set of habits, and those unconscious patterns can run our lives, or we can choose to change them. Everyone is recommending Atomic Habits, because he's done a great job of synthesizing what was being talked about for years prior, but the gist of the matter is getting good at practicing habit formation. And that skill allows you to leverage tiny successes into big momentum
So, for your example (and something that I have used effectively in the past on myself and helped others stay accountable to) is instead of googling your ideas right away, work on these habits in order
  1. have a notepad where you write down what it is you want to google before you're allowed to google it
  2. after googling it, cross it out and write down how much time that took (estimates are fine)
  3. before you google it, pause for 5 seconds. Bonus points if you say "I am able to resist googling things immediately after I have the idea"
  4. before you google it, defer that impulse and do some other small & useful task for 5 minutes. Like email, writing out next steps on your active project, some dishes, whatever.
  5. defer your googling of the list contents to a specific period of the day (I would use evenings after my best brainpower was spent on important things I needed focus for. Because it has a bunch of dopamine rewards and is entertainment-adjacent). So you're basically making a list through out the day and then committing to do it later when it's actually a better time to be doing it.
  6. defer your googling to the next day, or even later in the week
  7. when you are about to start your calendar scheduled googling session, decide which of these things are actually still important to google. (It was through this step that I was able to eliminate a whole bunch of stuff that, while it would be fun, wasn't connected to my short term or long term goals in any way. I have tonnes of interests, but it's been more fulfilling when I can continually point those interests back to a set of themes that I'm most excited about)
"""
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    Aaron Ball.  Recovered Academic. Grieving Environmentalist. Evidence-Based Transformational Coach. Electronic musician. Transrationalist.

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