logoalt Hacker News

js98today at 4:54 PM1 replyview on HN

Personally, my recent and surprisingly greatest win was to set up my old phone (samsung S21) with the addictive apps, removing them completely from my iPhone.

Quite literally "cold-turkey'ed" from 4.5-ish hours/day to 2 hours a day in a single day, consistent over the last few weeks.

I set up my second phone with a custom homescreen, and installing the 'bad' apps on there (Instagram, Youtube, NYTimes in particular). I dont use it for other apps.

Now if I want to scroll, which I still do sometimes, I have to walk to a specific chair next to which my 'addiction phone' is, I'll scroll for 10-15 minutes, and get back to the real world. I used to have particular issues with scrolling during vibe-coding sessions, and I'm genuinely surprised how well this approach worked for me.


Replies

irawentoday at 5:25 PM

cold-turkey doesn't seem to be the right phrase here, but i do agree with your overall point. i really do treat my scroll sessions as like a cigarette break, which, in a funny way, helps me feel better about wasting the time. it's an indulgement of a vice :p

show 1 reply