🟢 My addictions

The ongoing story of struggles and successes

(3 min read)

Drugs

I’ve never been addicted to drugs.

(Maybe the 1980s-90s commercials worked?!)

E.g. the frying pan commercials of This Is Your Brain On Drugs.

Or the Just Say No campaign.

Probably the role-modeling from my parents was most important.

Growing up, I noticed that my parents didn’t smoke and didn’t consume any drugs (that I know about) except alcohol.

What really stuck out to me was that they would abstain from alcohol for periods of a time.

They commented that it was a sensible practice to make sure that they weren’t getting into any mindless habits.

Other

I have embraced this kind of occasional check-in for other possible addictions in my life:

🟢 sugar

🟢 peanut butter

🟢 video games

🟢 vegan ice cream

🟢 social media

🟢 TV / YouTube

🟢 etc

For example, I used to eat vegan ice cream every night before bed.

If I really pay attention to it, it’s ecstasy.

But I also go through months-long spells of no dessert (like right now).

I personally find it helpful as a mindfulness practice.

I’m not ready to swear off desserts forever, but I keep myself in balance by proving that life goes on without them. 😀

Social Media

Like most people my age, I used to mindlessly scroll social media.

I recently quit LinkedIn (which seems to be resonating with a lot of people).

So my social media is now down to just Substack.

And I don’t have the Substack app on my phone.

On my desktop, I limit my time and don’t mindlessly scroll the feed.

News

Which reminds me, I could probably say that I was addicted to the news at some point (and even had Google News as my homepage when it was first available).

That was when I was a freshman at Princeton before I was webmaster of the official student homepage (called Point).

I’m glad I diverted my attention away from the news.

I see others get caught up in all the negativity and helplessness.

They justify it, saying they’re now “better informed”.

If being informed changed their behavior, great.

For most people, their behavior remains the same, so it’s pointless to get distracted and depressed by all the sensationalism and drama.

Picking or biting fingernails

During my days working at Bridgewater (and even before), I had this habit until:

1. I said something like “Smokers are so gross. If I somehow got addicted to something like that, I’d catch myself and quit so fast.”

   
   Then it hit me. I was addicted to a gross habit. 😮🤦‍♂️ So now I needed to see if I could walk the talk.
   

2. I bought a bunch of nail clippers and made sure to distribute them such that they were always convenient (in the car, on each floor of my home, etc).

   
   Making the desired behavior easier made quitting the unwanted behavior possible.

That 2-part combo was quickly effective and permanent.

Healthy Addictions

Not all addictions are problematic.

I’d love to develop some healthy addictions somehow.

I envy people who crave lifting weights or running.

Or meditating or volunteering.

I haven’t gotten caught up in those virtuous cycles yet.

I love playing basketball twice a week, but I can’t call it an addiction.

The closest I could think of would be my neighborhood walks with Katie.

Healthy, peaceful, rejuvenating… and routine.

Reducing harmful addictions by pairing

A friend was interested to hear of this strategy of mine:

When I worry about a habit (like watching more YouTube than I should), I create a new rule like:

I can only watch YouTube while I’m on the treadmill or doing squats.

Problem solved.

Either I quit YouTube, or I increase a behavior I’ve been wanting to do more of.

By the way, on Android, go to Settings > YouTube > Disable. Game-changer.

❌ Devices / Communications ❌

This topic inspired me to write this post today.

My current struggle.

You may have heard the advice to switch your phone into grayscale mode.

It’s good advice.

Settings > Accessibility > Color and motion > Color correction > Grayscale

You’ll find your device far less tempting.

My phone

However, I still found myself mindlessly opening Gmail.

Even though I buried its icon far from the home screen.

Muscle memory prevailed. 😐

On my desktop too.

I got rid of Gmail as a bookmark, but my fingers could so easily press CTRL-L to highlight the URL bar and then type gmail dot com, and boom, there I am.

There have been periods in my life where I’ve reduced email-checking to twice a day.

I want to move in that direction again (down from 74,256 times a day).

So I recently coded a browser extension that blurs Gmail and shows a popup that lists out all the times I’ve visited recently.

My browser extension that will help me check Gmail less

The idea is that I’ll now be faced with the evidence of the ridiculousness of my habit.

I will tweak the extension until it successfully leads to the behavior change I want.

As for Android, I went to Settings > Gmail > Disable.

Blank canvas

Stepping back from habits that unconsciously started taking up more space in your life leaves you room to make new decisions.

To find what matters.

I also resumed 2 other habits in recent weeks that I’m optimistic about:

My mornings now begin with fitness + using Headspace to meditate.

Now if only I could get addicted…

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🕙 What we learned in recent posts:

🟢 You are The One

🟢 “Dazed but not dead”

🟢 5 mental shifts that saved my (physical) life

🟢 Bye LinkedIn

🟢 [See all posts]

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💬 Conversation starters:

What habits have you quit?

What habits have you started?

What habits would you love (and wish were easier to start)?

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📣 Special thanks to:

Brian Wiesner

of

Serendipity Lab

for recommending Fulfillment and Financial Freedom, which led to more people subscribing here.

Check out his latest post, which is getting lots of engagement:

Retire often