I am easily distracted, so keeping the focus on work and music making is sometimes a struggle for me. One of my main distractions is this forum, because it’s such a cool place with (mostly) laid back people sharing a lot of my passions.
But: before I know it, I am gassing for things I don’t need or I’ll be looking at Reaktor youtube-vids because someone posted some cool vids with out-of-this-world audio.
So my question is: are there Nauts who periodically take a break from the forum or maybe socials/internet all together? And what are strategies that work for you?
I hope I will be distracted big time by your answers.
Yeah, I go to Muff Wiggler, then I take a break from there and come back here, then back there, then here, etc.
For me though I tell myself that gotta just leave my phone in the other room when I sit down to jam. Its far too easy to just check something out real quick, and next thing you know you’ve been listening to your drum loop for an hour while surfing the web. It helps to have a schedule, like this day I’ll working on mastering, and this day I’ll watch videos about that, and this day I’ll spend just messing around. Self control is also something you can transfer to every part of your life.
I take long breaks from social media at least twice/thrice a year. I just get so upset with people and their behaviour on-line that I need to take the occasional breather for my own sanity. I’ve always been very good at controlling my own actions and taking a month or two off is easy for me. I am basically almost straight edge anyway, so getting rid of one more bad habit is not a problem.
Whenever I’m on a break from facebook, I consider Elektronauts to be my social media. I don’t see this forum as a distraction or hinderance for me. So that doesn’t really solve your problem or answer your question.
This forum is my only “leisure” internet use, aside from a little YouTube surfing from time to time, so it’s not really a big deal for me in terms of how much of my life it takes up.
Turn your wifi off when working on music, maybe. I do that sometimes as it seems to help avoiding CPU spikes when using heavy plugins in my DAW, so double benefit
I try to watch my screen time and it’s always higher than id like but half of it is here or Lines.
Facebook is a terrible place: I actually get a jolt of dread where I sign in. I seldom use it anymore. IG is ok: some funny shit on there; some decent music. Still very anxiety inducing.
I realized the other day that I probably spend all that time in these forums because I’m away from toys and want to some how project myself there. My dopamine his are good tips and interesting new techniques.
Is that something I should cut down on? Probably.
Anyway this board isn’t nearly as bad as the dystopia wastelands of king zuck.
When I have to get something done, you won’t see me for a few days or even a week.
I just do what I have to (or want) to do and then I’m back here eventually.
If you feel like it’s a bad influence on you then you should definitely tell yourself that you’re not coming here until you achieve * insert goal here *
At least until you figure out how to self manage better.
Right now you feel like you’re not doing something you want to do in life. Do that first and then see if you can squeeze us in somewhere once you’re disciplined in what really want to do with your time. I’ll be here and I know some others that will still be here too
This place keeps me sane personally. So I come here out of necessity.
For me what helps most is not making long lists of tasks, but break up days in three parts (morning, early afternoon, late afternoon). If I plan them in the day/evening before, each of the three parts having one dedicated general focus, then I’ll feel most focussed, instead of having long lists of things to procrastinate on. For example:
Morning: Email / admin
Early afternoon: Work on freelance project
Late afternoon: Making music.
Edit: Social Media / Elektronauts ideally would fit between them, as a break during coffee or lunch.
