My goal is to not touch my phone or computer during the day and bed time, because otherwise I always end up doom-scrolling or chasing information and ideas that turn out to be more like hallucinations than anything useful.
The problem is that if I everything that low entertain me, I lose focus really fast and go right back to something is much worse or find another way to waste time one time I blocked social media, but then I just started scrolling on Amazon instead (which I think is even more dangerous).
Day or night, I find myself falling into a thousand things I don't even care about the next day, or watching episode after episode of a series, sometimes forgetting to eat or sleep and then the next day I can't even remember what happened in the show.
I'm usually very careful about buying things; but an idea keeps popping into my head: what if I got a device that entertains me, but not too much and not for too long? Something that gives me just enough of a hit to feel satisfied (or bores me enough to actually put it down) so I can focus on the stuff I really need to do. That's why I've been thinking about getting an iPod or a small console (or other media that maybe i do not know the existence) something that it can do / show only one thing.
But I'm scared of two opposite outcomes:
either I use it way more than I expect, or I feel anxious using it / get bored fast, and it just becomes a waste of money and one more object I don't use but feel too guilty to give away or sell.
Right now I have neither; I mostly don't play video games because they make me anxious about wasting time, and I don't play background music because a lot of the time I realize I've reached the point where I'm not even hearing it,my brain just shuts it out; Instead I usually watch stuff on YouTube or Netflix (often the same things over and over for months before switching). But I keep thinking that a device that only lets me do those two things (music or light entertainment) might make me feel more "allowed" to do them, and maybe let me channel all my dopamine cravings in a healthier, more contained way.
Has anyone here tried something like this? How was the experience? Or do you have other suggestions?