How I Tamed YouTube To Stop Procrastinating
Practical tips to boost productivity and fight the algorithm
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Intro
Your attention. Social media algorithms are constantly fighting to attract it. And keep it as long as possible. And one of the giants of this contest for your eyeballs is YouTube.
And I myself have got outplayed by YouTube more than enough times to find it frustrating. It’s always more fun to watch something entertaining and maybe even educational rather than doing the boring tasks I actually need to get done.
It’s time we fight back. And here’s how I do it.
My weapons of choice
The best cure for procrastination is boredom. Yes, you heard me right! Boredom. We, humans, are really terrible at doing nothing. So eliminating unnecessary stimuli provided by our dear friend the YouTube algorithm is a straight road to improved productivity.
Here’s what helps me:
1. Getting rid of suggestions
I use a free chrome extension to remove all the suggested videos from YouTube page. And redirect the home page to the subscriptions page. Getting rid of all the fascinating videos YouTubes algorithm has picked specifically for me based on my years of history of watching YouTube, really makes the whole thing much more boring. And much less distracting.
But that alone is just not enough. I have grown quite a huge list of channels I'm subscribed to. So sometimes limiting my watch time is the way to go.
2. Time management
For this, I use a chrome extension called YouTube Time. I usually set it up to limit my time on YouTube anywhere from 60–90 minutes per day. To let me watch some quality long-term content from my favorite creators.
This enables me to relax a bit while watching something that I mindfully choose. And saves me from falling into the trap of getting too fascinated about something that is exciting to watch, but adds no value to my life. And suddenly realizing it’s 3 AM I am still watching random videos on the Internet. But haven’t done what needed to be done.
I usually watch YouTube on my laptop so this is not a problem for me on my phone. But if it was I would just use time-limiting app on my iPhone as I do with other attention-grabbing apps like TikTok. And I am sure there are plenty of options on how to do this on android as well.
But what about learning?
Of course, YouTube is not all bad. In fact, it is great. And especially so for learning stuff. And here’s a little trick I use to not get carried away on different topics while I use YouTube for learning.
Did you know that you can have multiple channels connected to your main Google account? It’s just like switching between accounts on Instagram or Twitter. One easy click away on your username and picture.
What this enables me to do is having multiple subscription lists, each related to a specific topic. For example, if I want to learn about SEO or marketing, I will create a channel and subscribe only to creators who focus on these specific topics. This way I can leave my main channel as it is, and be extremely topic focused while using the others.
I hope these tips were helpful to you and will help you increase your productivity.
Leave a comment on what tricks you use to fight the algorithm!
One last thing
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