[doble-io]

I really hope you get what you want the way you describe, but for everyone else reading this: don't dismiss hacks like unplugging your router.

Everyone should use external control (aka stimulus control [1]) more shamelessly. Stimulus control is a well-known technique that gets the job done for day-to-day problems like "phone compulsion."

When you ask what willpower is, people think of "magical mental points." Common knowledge suggests that needing external control (like putting away your phone) means you lack willpower, spirit, maturity, or you're-not-going-to-make-it™. Like there are two opposite camps: willpower/rational decision making/system II [2] vs external control. This is unwise and is not supported scientifically.

Let me explain in CS-like terms: If life is a search problem, the action space is insanely enormous. Sitting in my office, I could jump, eat a candy bar, look at my phone, throw my computer, play the cello, sing, or work. The first "pruning" is simply availability - I won't play the cello since I don't have one here.

The same applies to distractions. We live in a digital environment where accessing distractions costs nearly zero. So maintaining cognitive hygiene through stimulus control (switching off your router, putting away your phone) is good.

Sadly, willpower is what common knowledge sets as the good/moral/mature behavior: if you need to put away your phone, you are less valid or whatever culture-specific narrative you're into. Ignore those ideas and keep your mind clean: put your router on fire if that's what you need at first. You will get better.

[1]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/stimulus-con... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow#Two_sy...

[supersrdjan]

Nono, I specifically mentioned no willpower required. Like in your example of available actions, I also have zero desire to jump out of the window, so don’t have to expend any willpower to resist it. Similarly, on my good days, I don’t feel attracted to my phone. What do you say about that?

[doble-io]

Sounds great! :) I am working on the same thing, trying to go back to my good days haha. Maybe zero desire is not achievable with highly-designed UIs crafted for attention hooks. But yeah, everyone is fighting a similar fight! I was not claiming you said any specifics. Sorry, I could have been clearer in my answer. My goal was to try to explain a little more to other readers because this sentence:

> I don't want to have to lock away the phone from myself or unplug my router.

could lead people into thinking that a state of no distractions could be achieved with no external control. In my opinion, that is unrealistic and probably extremely rare. You will probably need to lock away or add some friction to accessing your phone.

As long as we have smartphones with zero-cost distractions, our reptile brain will need some external control and we can carefully design it.

So my general advice for anyone trying to reduce their doomscrolling time is: keep your environment clean and designed for it - move your phone away and activate do not disturb mode, use extensions to block websites, etc.