Yeah, there really is no excuse. I’ve certainly recognised the problem and will make a serious effort to avoid that in the future.
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A great deal on an NL3 would break me too if that makes you feel any better 
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Go out into any area with a bunch of people waiting in line or congregating.
Purposely do not pull out your phone and look around instead. Look at all the other people staring at their phones instead of the world around them. Imagine that you’re normally one of them and imagine what you look like.
I’m not against using my phone purposefully. I just try to make sure I’m not doing it out of habit or boredom.
There’s a lot to be thought about around you. Nature is obviously endlessly interesting. In man made areas I like to look at the quality of the items/buildings made by people. Think about how and why they made it that way.
Do weird things and see if people notice
Make it a game 
You can also basically stare and observe people because they’ll just be looking at their phones anyway.
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Sure!! Lots of good points there!! it’s possible that I’ve made this sound a bit worse than it really is. It can happen easily when one gets absolutely fed up with these habits. Not saying it’s not a real problem but these things seem to go in cycles and now I’m coming out of a period of being too attached to that damn thing for my liking.
There has been lots of long periods of time I haven’t had social media or any of this hassle and the kind of stuff you pointed out has been pretty much my mode of operation, but somehow I once again got sucked in when the covid came along and keeping up with ppl became trickier.
However, I also try to avoid ending up on a “look at those zombies” trip bcs that can get kinda silly too.
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For sure! You don’t want to spend all your time looking down on people or that will become your new bad habit 
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Exactly.
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Two small victories:
I deleted an email from a manufacturer about a piece of gear becoming available. I won’t mention what it is here to avoid any triggers for anyone else, but it was for something very cool that I absolutely do not need.
Second, I found myself looking at videos for another synth that I have always been interested in based on some posts in this thread. Next thing I know I was scouring the internet looking for one, but luckily I caught myself and went to the studio and played one of the synths I ACTUALLY HAVE instead. I ended up making the beginnings of a track that I think has some promise. It felt like a bit of a close call though; it’s so easy to fall into patterns.
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My credit card bill from my year-end spending hits on Feb 4. Which means I won’t really start seeing any financial benefits from not buying gear until March. That’s strengthened my resolve to last until the summer at least.
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the other day, some sweetwater thing arrived in my email. i took a look at their “best polysynths of 2021” or whatever article on their site, only saw maybe one or two that i’d not looked at before, closed the page, and felt no urge to buy anything at all. this niche is firmly covered by stuff i already have — some of which was even mentioned in the article. sorry, sweetwater: you won’t get any money from me for awhile.
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I will point out and offer encouragement to anyone else reading this, who is perhaps even further in debt. You are actually seeing benefit right now. Debt although it seems hidden, is very real. You see benefit immediately just by decreasing your debt, and simply by not increasing it. So you are already benefitting.
Squeeze everything you can to pay off your debts. Use a budget. Prioritize your debts. Mortgages are debts too, just with lower priority.
I’m not NoGear, but i do budget, and never ever carry a debt.
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For me it’s just my discretionary funds (money set aside for fun stuff), not debt, but the funds in that account won’t rise until I stop digging into them.
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Small victories here too:
A module I wanted came up for sale on ModGrid (I forgot to delete the reminder). After initially wanting to buy it, after I made myself wait and think for 10 minutes, I remembered I’m not even using modular just now. I don’t need it. The temptation went.
@Hinterlands I also got an email about something becoming available, again I made myself wait a bit and think after initially wanting to get it. I have something else that sort of does this (that I bought last year and haven’t touched, of course). There, temptation gone.
I think it’s really important for me not to give in to impulses around gear. My first thought about buying gear will almost certainly be wrong, and hopefully I’m learning to ignore it and rationalise to the right call.
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If we are talking about the same all together… This piece was the reason I didn’t want to join here, but after I got it used in December, I was able to join. I got the email too today, and I definitively would have ordered
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You guys talking about a certain pedal by any chance? Got an email about a restock yesterday as well. Deleted the email so now I can pretend I don’t remember when the new batch comes available.
Would’ve bought the pedal in December if it was available. Then again, guitar pedals with synths haven’t always been a great success for me. Anyway, another bullet dodged.
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“Whoah!”
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Yeah, I feel like a superhero alright. Except that I keep firing shots at myself…
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Yeah, I got the email as well. And I allready got one at the end of November. But if I hadn’t I would have ‘sinned’. Stupidly. After I got it I have no GAS anymore. At least, not as strong….
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No, I am for 99% certain its not a pedal… and the piece of kit we are talking about is already sold out again within minutes.
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Safe again…
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