Limiting audio

Akrasia
1

Hello,

TL;DR: I’m looking for advice on how to Beemind limits on Apps that can be in the background, such as audiobooks/podcasts.

I came across Beeminder for ~8 months, and it’s like I found a long lost manual to myself. I could finally stick to doing things I have been meaning to for years. I have been a heavily relying on it since, with 30+ active goals in all aspects of my life, with many on autoratchet.

One part that I struggle with is audio content: I really enjoy fiction audiobooks (in particular LitRPG). But they are very bingeable, and they take over my life. Audible says I averaged ~5 hours daily listening time for a period of 6 months. It has had negative impact on my life.

So a year ago I stopped fiction audiobooks cold-turkey, and been only listening to shorter podcasts or non-fiction books, which don’t have the same “binginess” appeal. It worked OK, but I used to gravitate back towards binging videos, or playing games (my original addictions).

I took a pause from YouTube a month ago, and found myself really missing fiction audiobooks again, so I made a rule to myself that I am only allowed to listen when all my Beeminder goals are green. This worked like wonder, and I went from having 5+ beemergencies daily to everything green all the time! E.g. I would open duolingo first thing in the morning, all because I really wanted to listen to the next part in the book.

Yet I found myself going back to listening 5+ hours per day. I suffered from solitude deprivation, and I reverted to doing the bare-minimum in my life just so I can spend the remainder listening.

I recently finished a book series, and I’m too afraid of starting another. But at the same time I noticed I’m slipping to beemergencies again since I no longer have the motivation of audiobooks, and gravitating back to YouTube.

So I was wondering if I could reintroduce audiobooks with guard-rails that prevent it from taking over my life.

The ideal solution for me would be to allow me to listen to audiobooks, but limit my time to say 1 hour per day, or 30 minutes in morning and 45 minutes in the evening. Extra points if it could make this the total for audiobooks + podcast apps.
(Android’s digital wellbeing unfortunately only consider “screen time limit”, no background audio limits)

I am able to self-impose on myself that I need to turn my beeminder goals green to start listening, no issue here.

Another idea that came to my mind - would it be better if I beeminded the opposite: time where I am daydreaming/thinking/… without earbuds? It sounded difficult to track consistently to me.

Thank you for reading and looking forward to read your advice,

2 Likes
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I am wondering what the need might be for your listening to the stories, for binging on them. What else are you usually doing while listening? Idling in place? Everything else with those as background chatter?

And I was thinking if you could pinpoint what the thing is you are missing or craving or needing, then that can help with constructing the goal to meet your aspirations.

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Only skimmed your post, but you might find it useful to beemind setting timers. So if you want to listen to an audiobook, set a timer for 30 minutes, and input a 1 in a book-blocks goal, say. That way when the timer goes off you have a reminder to decide whether to keep listening with a new timer or stop for now. I’ve had good success with this pattern for things like watching YouTube and playing computer games where I’m likely to forget about time passing.

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My need starts with genuinely being hooked by a story and wanting to know what happens next, but what usually drives the unhealthy binging is distraction from negative feelings related to “I should have done X” and fighting boredom.

While listening, I can only do physical things like chores or sports or grocery shopping. However, the critical introspection work falls to the side and my relationships suffer.

And I think I struggle most with stopping. I could say I won’t start listening until I do X, but I usually need enforcement to stop after Y time.

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5

That is a cool idea! Will give it a try, thanks!

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I might use this idea, I like it fairly flexible but also can be used for a lot of things.

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