At the beginning of December I shared a challenge I had instituted for myself; cold turkey all usage of my most distracting habit: youtube. I had already been following Cal Newport’s advice on digital minimalism, but youtube had slipped through the cracks as something I felt I could deploy intentionally for a positive outcome. 

The algorithm that had figured out exactly the type of videos I would *click* on was simply too smart for me and so for all of December I was wildly productive by eliminating the site. 

Then, I had a relapse during the week of the capitol breach, and just like George Orwell’s prolefeed in 1984,  I was roped in to video after video dissecting the situation. Wasting time. 

Knowing the benefits I reaped during December, and that the focus I gained from getting off social media years ago – I just put the final nail in the coffin and buried the last of my distraction demons by downloading the “block site” plugin for google chrome and blocking youtube. I doubled down on my efforts to stay informed through long form readings and subscription newsletters by subscribing to a popular weekly newsletter from both sides of the political aisle. 

If you too had a positive outcome from your distraction free December, consider making it permanent – the call disconnect from our modern day prolefeed has never been so urgent.