A month without the YouTube Rabbit Hole

Identifying the Problem

Spending a couple of minutes on YouTube might not be that much of a problem, watching memes can be fun and joyful for lots of people, but when it's 2AM and you're trying to wake up early for work/school/university etc.. and you cannot resist the urge to watch just one more video of cute kittens or memes.

In this case you have successfully fallen into the YouTube Rabbit Hole.

A Solution

Unhook

I've discovered Unhook which is a Google Chrome Extension that hides some features of YouTube, specifically the ones that make you stay on the platform.

I've decided to try this extension for a month, since I wasn't a fan of being stuck in the YouTube rabbit hole at 2AM because it pretty much ruined my sleep schedule and my productivity.

Time Management

Another solution for me was time management, where I've used Noisli to set a timer for X minutes/hours for watching a YouTube video, or even browsing a social media platform.

Personally this solution didn't work as good as using the Unhook extension but it helped me with the procrastination problem while I was coding or doing university work.

The Result

It's interesting that within the first few days of testing the extension somehow it felt like something was wrong it was as if my brain was telling me that it's not enough and I needed to watch one more video.

I used to spend hours on YouTube where I've had issues with my sleep schedule and my productivity, but after a month of using this extension I've been able to search videos while working without any distractions or any procrastination which increased my productivity drastically.

(Disclaimer: I wrote this blog post based on my own opinions and experience)