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Using Home Assistant, adguard home and an $8 smart outlet to avoid brain rot

(www.romanklasen.com)
370 points remuskaos | 3 comments | 22 Jun 25 20:26 UTC | HN request time: 0.899s | source
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AdieuToLogic ◴[23 Jun 25 02:48 UTC] No.44352075[source]▶
Here is a gradated set of exercises to determine one's phone addiction, if any, in increasing levels of potential difficulty.

  1 - on an off day, with no reason to require phone use,
    put your phone in a dresser drawer for the day and
    do not use or look at it.

  2 - on an off day, with no reason to require phone use,
    put your phone in a dresser drawer for the day and
    leave your residence for at least one hour.

  3 - leave your phone at home when either meeting friends,
    getting lunch, or going to the grocery store.

  4 - leave your phone at home when going into the office
    for one day.

  5 - leave your phone in a dresser drawer for an entire
    weekend.

  6 - leave your phone at home when traveling for more
    than a day (vacation, visiting family, etc.).
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1. myself248 ◴[23 Jun 25 03:00 UTC] No.44352106[source]▶
These are very good. I take phone-free walks around the neighborhood, to the store, downtown for a festival. It feels weird at first, then it's nice.

I took an internet-free vacation last spring, and it was lovely.

While planning the trip, I made sure my old TomTom's built-in maps seemed accurate to what I was seeing online; there wasn't a lot of road-building activity there in the last decade or two. Then I turned off my phone and locked it in the glovebox, there in case of emergency.

Then I took a deep breath, started the car, and headed north.

It was awesome just knowing there was no way a notification could ding, nobody could call me, no news headline could pop up and harsh my mellow. Even if those things didn't actually happen constantly, simply existing in a state where they could was stressful, apparently, and turning the damn thing off was remarkably cathartic.

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2. AdieuToLogic ◴[23 Jun 25 03:44 UTC] No.44352299[source]▶
Reading your story brings joy to my heart, not for any reason other than I can see in my mind's eye what you describe. And it rocks!

Freedom is a gift, not from without, but found from within.

We set ourself free by our choices. And we shackle ourselves by same.

3. rrr_oh_man ◴[23 Jun 25 15:39 UTC] No.44356873[source]▶
If you haven't done it, yet: Turn notifications off. All of them. It will improve your life.