Living a more simple life

There is a lot of talk about content addiction. This video talks about it very well. I'm very well aware of how reliant I have become on extra content. Heck, as I write this right now, I have some slop YouTube video discussing dumb drama I shouldn't really care about playing on my second screen. Why? Because it's entertaining. It doesn't help me in any way, it doesn't serve my purpose or help me achieve my goals. It's gotten to the point now where I turn on the computer as soon as I wake up and I load up one of these dumb videos to play as I get dressed. I'm cleaning dishes, I have a dumb video on. I'm cooking my dinner, I have a dumb video on. I'm putting away laundry, I have a dumb video on. I'm working on my business project, I have a dumb video on.

This is not good.

So what steps can I take to improve upon this. My first though is to change what it is I put on in the background while I'm carrying out various tasks. I fortunately have a second YouTube account that is solely focused on self improvement and coding videos. If it looks like it's dumb e-celeb drama or political, I will click to ignore that channel. My hope is that I can change what I listen to to things that are actually helping me and serving a purpose in my growth.

Another thing I can switch to listen to is audiobooks. I love putting an audiobook on when I go to sleep in the evening. There's a lot of Horus Heresy books to get through. I can get through so many more if I listen to them instead of drama slop. Although that is something I have to actually pay attention to, so I can't put it on as just background for various tasks that require serious attention.

Another thing to try and work on is the subtitle of this post. Sometimes you just need to take pleasure in the small things that you enjoy. One thing for me is a cup of black coffee in the morning. I was not a big coffee drinker for most of my life, but after watching a video by Hamza who discussed not having a breakfast and instead just having a black coffee. I tried it for a bit and found it didn't work for me so I went back to having overnight oats for breakfast, but I really enjoyed having a black coffee and so I now have one every morning. Often what I'm doing is sitting at my desk with it, watching nonsense on YouTube. What I need to do is instead drink it in my living room where there's generally more natural light, and focus on the coffee itself, taking joy in that taste.

It's hard work. It's a bad habit I often try to quit and sometimes I succeed for a bit, only to then get drawn back in. I'm so close to finishing the first phase of my business project and I need to be more focused than ever. It's best that I keep at it and try to be better.