[vineyardmike]

So it seems from comments that this is a thing others do, but I have a question for you OP:

What’s to stop you from just reconnecting internet? If you went through different tools to accomplish this already, and you bypassed them all, why will this be the successful tool?

Not to be too much of a downer, but I think you will fail if you try it. You already said that you see notices that you recognize aren’t helpful and you don’t ignore them today. Not to be critical, but what you need is self control, or a recognition that maybe you should find different hobbies. I know it’d not an answer you want and this is tech where there’s a solution to all human problems.

I have ADHD and that makes it extremely hard to focus. On work or on play. By the time work is over I’m tired and more easily distracted. I used to beat myself up trying to focus on “productive” hobbies. What can I build. What can I make. Etc. except I too was quickly distracted by notifications on my computer and phone and things going on in my house… at some point I just realized that my desire to accomplish something with these hobbies wasn’t serving me.

Idk if this actually applies to you, only you can know. It’s really hard to accept that maybe a productive hobby isn’t for you - it was for me - but it could set you free. HN is full of stories of people who turned a hobby product into a lucrative business or a famous open source project. The internet is full of YouTubers who make crazy contraptions in the weekend. It’s so easy to get FOMO and feel that you’re just as capable.. if only you can focus on the evenings and not be distracted. But some people (like myself) will be distracted. I know if I just turned the internet off, I’d just get up after a while and find a distraction that isn’t a broken Plug-in.

If you’re easily distracted, you need to manage yourself, not your environment, because there will always be a source of distractions. I hope you find happiness with your hobbies and yourself.

[Nomentatus]

The research seems to show that those who seem to have self-control are actually just good at creating an environment with fewer temptations. Air gapping works for me, although it's now 2PM and was 'sposed to have switched to my offline comp hours ago. I've been using a comp with hard drive slots so I just switch hard drives, reboot and go.

Making it hard for yourself to be bad, is good, generally. For catastrophic temptations, like alcoholism, I have heard that some keep a full sealed bottle around so that temptation is unvarying, however; and find that keeps them from starting again.

[vineyardmike]

> The research seems to show that those who seem to have self-control are actually just good at creating an environment with fewer temptations.

I think the actual notion of “self control” is kinda fake but I also don’t believe there exists research to defend your point.

There are lots of people who all have brains that work very differently and lots of type of “work” to be done that requires wildly different environments. If it was true that controlling distractions was straightforward through environmental management then everyone’s office would be a strike while room with no seams or windows.

[Nomentatus]

Maybe before calling someone a liar next time; do a little googling. There are literally decades of studies here. Start with this one, and it's bibliography:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain...

Dig in further by googling "pubmed" and then entering your terms for a search. Stop fantasizing about what peer-reviewed studies do and don't exist: there's an internet, now; you can find them in seconds.

[Nomentatus]

I don't recommend the hard drive slot solution though, I've lost a few hard drives along the way; too easy to short 'em out accidentally I would guess.

[grnrnm]

Great write up, thank you! I know there's a much better chance you're right on the nose than not. I have ADHD as well (diagnosed and medicated), so I empathized with your comment. I also have my 9-5 day job so these hobbies are usually done after and on the same desk I work from; I just undock my work laptop and dock my personal laptop.

The thing that would stop me from reconnecting to the internet is I'd build a custom-built desktop PC that doesn't have a Wi-Fi card (although it seems these days more motherboards have Wi-Fi built in than not). The only way I would be able to connect it to the internet is buying and installing a Wi-Fi card or finding an Ethernet cable to run to my router. It would be a much higher resistance and more time to catch myself and reevaluate.

I definitely have lightened up as far as criticizing myself for not being as productive as others despite having the capabilities. I'm confident I've made really great art in various forms but doing it consistently and making it a long-term habit is where I struggle.

Thanks for your comment!

[jonas-w]

Thank you both for posting these comments. I see myself in both of them and feel somewhat spooked, because those are my problems and the things I do (especially the laptop docking part and trying to do a productive hobby after work). And to hear from other people that they also have these problems and also do these things, is kind of cool (although i don't wish anyone these problems).

Airgapping would have too much friction for me to be a feasible solution. But i still need to get away from this time/brain capacity/energy wasting thing called internet.

Literally every blocker i try to implement is just another time waster, first I need to spend time thinking of a blocker, implementing/setting up the blocker and then last but not least bypassing the blocker.

I don't really have "hobbies" that don't include using a computer. So there is not much time i spend doing the fun things but instead doing the things that just happen when i'm trying to do my hobbies.