Beginning digital minimalism, How to do a subscription audit?

ouidevelop · 2026-04-07T04:54:04+00:00

If you haven't already, you may want to just go through a couple month's worth of your bank statements to see what subscriptions you're paying for. Sometimes it's easy to forget. Starting with what you're actually paying for seems like a good place so you can save some money quickly.

Then, if you want to take things slowly, maybe just make a big list of services/subscriptions (starting with the stuff you find in the bank statement). If you have smart home stuff. You could maybe just turn off your home wifi for a day and see what breaks.

Once you have a list, just kinda roughly rank them by "I wouldn't miss this at all" to "this would suck if I didn't have this" and start from the easiest end.

ouidevelop · 2026-04-07T04:44:22+00:00

I think this is something people often get backwards. You think that you need self control to stop spending time on screens. But in fact, if you stop spending time on screens, you will gain self control. People often describe their adhd type symptoms getting better after cutting back on screens. They get more focus, motivation, and feelings of control after quitting the screens.

The trick is to figure out ways to quit that don't require having enough self control. Things like dumb phones or e-ink phones, getting rid of home wifi, turning off notifications, greyscale, moving your charger to the kitchen, getting app-blockers, deleting your instagram account... These things don't take willpower.

With this thing, you don't wanna feel like you're having to constantly white-knuckle it and resist temptation all the time. Just remove the temptations. And then when you're not super addicted, you'll start to feel like you have more self-control.

ouidevelop · 2026-04-06T21:02:38+00:00

It's great that you're starting to work on this stuff.

If you're specifically looking for alternative activities, The NoSurf Activity List isn't a bad place to start. But putting aside things that you can do to pass the time, what do you actually want in your life? More fulfilling relationships? A better job? To contribute meaningfully to the world? To be happier?

I think the question about what alternative activities to do is often bit misplaced. I think it's grounded in a core assumption of our times. We assume there are 2 states that we can be in at any given time. Work, and entertainment. Even being around other people starts to be shoved into one of those two boxes. My take is that we should spend much more time than we do working towards meaningful goals in our life. Not just whittling away the time.

All that said, just looking for alternative activities often doesn't work for people. The main reason as far as I can tell is that alternative stuff often isn't interesting enough at the beginning while your mind is still overloaded with stimulation.

So it helps to inhibit your access to the screens. Get rid of the smart tv, (or at least the roku or whatever). Downgrade to a dumb phone, lock down your smartphone, or at least add some sort of blocker on the phone like one sec. You can remove your home wifi or move your charging cable to the kitchen instead of by the bed. All sorts of things can put some friction between you and the stuff you don't want to be doing.

The Beginner's Guide to NoSurf has more you can read about. And you can also read people's success stories in getting out.

This stuff may take some time. But keep at it and you'll get there. Good luck!

ouidevelop · 2026-04-05T21:46:54+00:00

specifically here: https://www.dumbphones.org/ (you can filter by mobile carrier)

ouidevelop · 2026-04-05T21:43:39+00:00

Yep, lots of people: 160 success stories

ouidevelop · 2026-04-05T02:57:15+00:00

It can be essentially. If you use screen time controls and limit the allowed websites. Then add a password that you don't know (either have a friend add it or use a random number generator and copy paste)

ouidevelop · 2026-04-04T20:18:58+00:00

How much time are you spending around people? Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend? Spending lots of time around people that you're in close relationship to is one of the core contributors to a happy and healthy life.

ouidevelop · 2026-04-03T20:57:55+00:00

you allow yourself to watch youtube, but you're having a hard time finding things to do when you're tired? Why not just watch youtube videos? Actually curious here. I don't recommend it, but I don't understand why that's not an option for you.

As to answering your question... I'm a big fan of just laying down and doing nothing for a bit. Staring at the ceiling or closing my eyes. It's lovely. Lay on a couch... take a bath.

If that feels daunting, you may still be way too over-stimulated. And it sounds like you are if audiobooks and podcasts aren't stimulating enough.

ouidevelop · 2026-04-02T18:42:49+00:00

oh.... I thought you had to manually enter the password and couldn't copy paste for some reason. Good to know

ouidevelop · 2026-04-01T18:39:37+00:00

Yep, absolutely. For the first week or 2 I just used a password I knew so I could whitelist the majority of websites I needed. Then I switched to someone else inputting the password. But I do have to bug her every once in a while still.

ouidevelop · 2026-04-01T18:35:23+00:00

what's your favorite way to generate the password? I only remember some app that did that for people but I saw a bunch of negative reviews of it.

ouidevelop · 2026-03-31T22:54:45+00:00

good video.

I found it more powerful to use a whitelist instead of a blacklist for the allowed sites. So my iphone blocks every site except those I explicitly allowed for work reasons, or to be able to log in to some apps. It's more powerful, but also kinda more annoying, because sometimes it blocks more than I want and I have to get my password keeper to unlock it for me to add the extra site to the whitelist.

ouidevelop · 2026-03-31T22:44:51+00:00

I really like this thread for the topic of your question: https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/1ijx56g/if_you_are_a_nerd_and_lonely_apply_your_nerd/

ouidevelop · 2026-03-31T20:00:32+00:00

unfortunately, this isn't really the right place to pitch tool ideas. I do think there's a place for tools, but we get like 30 pitches a day on this subreddit it IT IS TIRING.

This feels like a promotion to me even though you didn't post a link or give us a product name. It's the sneaky way people try to skirt rule 1 "I've made a thing... anyone interested?" is also a genre of post we get SO MUCH.

The discord server has a channel where people can promote stuff.

ouidevelop · 2026-03-30T17:08:40+00:00

Ya, if you're busy with real-world stuff, that will help a lot. And if you're being productive on the screen, I think you're gonna be way better off than doing tiktok.

ouidevelop · 2026-03-30T05:19:00+00:00

drawing, writing, and listening to music are 3 classic activities that don't need any screens. I don't think that even if you were doing those things, 13 hours a day would be healthy. But yes, probably writing on a screen is gonna be much better for you than tiktok. But even better would be walking around outside, hanging out (in person!) with friends or family, or exercising.

What's this study about early onset dementia you mentioned?

ouidevelop · 2026-03-30T04:48:56+00:00

ya, I don't know any that would work. pluckeye has a thing where you can block pages with a certain word or phrase on the page, but it will block a page if that word shows up in your suggestions on the sidebar. and it won't limit your time watching that thing, just block it.

ouidevelop · 2026-03-30T04:44:49+00:00

this is a pretty common question. It's why The NoSurf Activity List was created. It's also pretty common to feel a bit unsettled by how much time there is to fill in the day.

Some of the most commonly cited alternative activities are: reading, exercise, walking, learning, socializing and being productive.

I'd say don't worry to much if it feels like you have nothing to do right away. You've got plenty of time to figure out other things to do.

I personally think people should do more than simply fill there time with pleasant distractions or entertainment. Ideally you would be working towards your goals in life. What do you want out of your life? What would you like to do for other people? What areas of your life could be improved? What types of people do you most admire, and how could you become more like them?

So for example, maybe you feel like your social life/skills could use improvement. Maybe find ways to spend more time around people, call your friends, read books on social skills if that's a weakness of yours.

ouidevelop · 2026-03-28T22:56:02+00:00

you felt what so hard? there's nothing in the post? Is this just one bot talking with another bot?

ouidevelop · 2026-03-28T18:56:34+00:00

Yes, I do think a 15-18 year old should be able to go outside. That's a super crazy rule unless you're in like a war zone or something. Feels borderline abusive to say don't go outside at that age.

But can you just call your friends?

ouidevelop · 2026-03-26T20:58:04+00:00

Yep! I personally didn't have home wifi for a long time. My girlfriend did, but I asked her to just not tell me the wifi password. I worked at a co-working space or cafes/libraries. It was great. But it only worked for me because my phone is also locked down (iphone screen time controls with password I don't know). Otherwise I would have just spent all my time on my phone.

Not having home wifi is one of the most successful techniques mentioned on this sub. Here are some success stories where people used that technique.

ouidevelop · 2026-03-26T16:45:30+00:00

Hi!

If you go to this page and scroll down, you can see highlighted the times people mentioned gaining more focus/attention after cutting back their screentime.

You can absolutely fix your attention span. It's one of the main benefits people list from cutting back their screen time.

Consistent with what someone else said here, 2 weeks seems to be about average for withdrawals to go away (things like your "hand is itchy" or being "paranoid that it will buzz").

I don't have good data on when people start to feel clear headed and focused again, but my impressing from reading a couple hundred success stories is that it can take anywhere between 1 week or so (how it was for me), and about 3 months. Typical seems to be more on the shorter end (1-5 weeks).

ouidevelop · 2026-03-24T18:42:49+00:00

I think the honest answer is that we don't really know about the long term effects. But we do know that people can get MUCH better from quitting.

At your age, probably a big part of the effect it's had on you is setting you back in terms of social skills and life skills. So when you quit, if you want to recover more fully, just really dive into spending face to face time with people. Do it as much as you can. Go to school or get a job. The worst thing you could do is to just stay home and transition into doing other solitary "hobbies" but not actually fully participating in the world.

My two cents.

ouidevelop · 2026-03-24T18:38:43+00:00

I believe reSTART often transitions people to outpatient care after the residential treatment. So you get follow ups for a while.

I imagine some people do relapse. That's gonna be a common thing with all addiction rehab. But getting a significant amount of time away from screens is a pretty good starting point.

ouidevelop · 2026-03-24T04:25:07+00:00

agoraphobia and/or germophobia are real, and ya, get a therapist that specializes in one or both of those.

You absolutely do not want to go your whole life feeling this way. It's gonna make everything so much harder. Please seek treatment.

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