🏊My System For Avoiding Online Distraction
Or, how I stopped context-switching
I work by the Infinity Pool of Content.
I feed it. It feeds me.
In other words, I spend a huge amount of my workday on websites and apps that are designed - with my help - to hijack my attention:
YouTube
Instagram
Twitter / X
Discord
WhatsApp
It’s incredibly easy for me to get distracted by the latest Answer in Progress video, or a new post by Mario Joos about interpreting CTR.
All useful stuff.
But if I let it, this context-switching will destroy my attention span, and with it my capacity to do meaningful work.
Gwilym has an idea.
Here’s the laughably simple solution I’ve used for the last few months: a Do-Not-Do List.
It looks like this:
Here’s how it works.
I take a lined piece of paper, and make a list of my biggest time-sinks along the side:
Twitter
Non-work YouTube videos
News + articles
WhatsApp
I then divide my workday into three three-hour periods (9-12, 12-3, 3-6) and track how often I did even one second of a time-sink activity in each period by putting a mark in the relevant box:
Black dash = success, no giving in to distractions
Red line = failure, even if just for 1 second. One line per lapse.
Here for example, you can see I checked Twitter twice between 9am-12pm on July 14th. And each time I caught myself, I put a red line in the box:
The goal is to go the whole day without a single red dash.
Does it work?
Yes! When I use this system I’d estimate I’m about 80% better at resisting distraction.
Why?
There are a couple of psychological tricks going on:
Impulse control: Splitting the day into three distinct periods incentivises me to not ‘crack’ within each period. Let’s say it’s 2.16pm – I don’t want to check Twitter before 3pm because I’d lose my streak. And by the time 3pm does roll around, my Twitter-checking urge will have likely subsided.
Always something to fight for: If I do give in to distraction there’s always something more to fight for, like not getting even more red lines in the current period. Or getting a black line in the next one. This stops me from thinking ‘damn, I may as well watch another video seeing as I’ve lost my streak’.
Gathering data: This system gives me a lot of information about my day-to-day habits. If I look back at the last few weeks and see a lot of red lines for Non-Work YouTube Videos in the morning, I’ll know I should be especially careful to not get sidetracked when I’m using YouTube for work-related research before midday.
“Real-world” consequences: Tracking this on paper instead of a Google Sheet or Notion page makes me feel more… accountable. Even after switching off my laptop, that pesky piece of paper is still lying on my desk, reminding me of my successes or failures.
If you regularly get distracted by online stuff but don’t have the option of going cold turkey on social media (Cal Newport-style) I highly recommend trying a Do Not Do List.
Write it out, keep it on your desk, and see what happens.
I hope this was useful!
Gwilym
P.S. If you implement your own Do Not Do List (or already have a similar system) I’d love to hear about it. Just reply to this email, or leave a comment below if you’re reading on Substack.
📮Gwilym’s Inbox
1. YouTube Strategist Reveals Blueprint For Going Viral. My fellow YouTube strategist Jamie Whiffen breaks down the formula he uses to get millions of views every year for gardening channel Grow Veg. Podcast co-host George’s window also gets attacked by a pigeon at 24:15. 🕊️
2. Week In The Life At MKBHD’s Studio. A nice insight into how a big YouTube team can publish content across multiple channels every week, without missing a beat. (Marques’s WVFRM podcast has gone out every week for three whole years!)
3. 16 Uncomfortable Truths Every Creator Should Know. A great post by Mario Joos. No.5 might be the most important to internalise: “Viewers watch content for selfish reasons, whether they admit it or not. If they don’t find enough value in your content, they won’t watch or care.”