How do I stop wasting time on Reddit at work?

Question

I recently began a paid internship. I am very inexperienced, so they said they would only give me the job if I could solve problems independently without bothering anyone. They aren't paying me much, so they aren't taking that much risk. I eagerly accepted it as an opportunity to gain some real experience.

I was given a project to work on and made progress on it. However, the job is entirely remote, and I work alone. There is almost no oversight of my work, even from my manager. With no one to hold me accountable but myself, I soon found myself wasting a lot of time surfing the internet.

I have always had issues with lousy internet habits, wasting time over the years on Reddit, Instagram, YouTube, Hacker News, and even Stack Exchange. If I block one website, I find myself on another. The distraction the internet provides is endless. Even Wikipedia has been a time suck for me.

I have also wanted to change my habits for many years. I've read several books on the matter (To name a few: Atomic Habits, Seven Habits, The Power of Habit, Digital Minimalism, How to Break Up with Your Phone, Getting Things Done, The Craving Mind, Four Thousand Weeks). Honestly, if you could recommend another book to me, I would read it. But with, what I've read, I haven't been able to change my habits.

If I were to describe the habit loop that leads me to waste time, it would be like this:
Cue - I get stuck with a problem while working. I'm not sure how to solve it.
Craving - I feel the urge to relieve myself of the stress of the problem.
Response - I look at some posts on Reddit. Reward - I forget about the problem temporarily, at the cost of hours wasted on Reddit or some other website.

But the problem is not solved, so the loop repeats.

Sometimes, I will recognize the craving and do something about it, like stepping away from the computer for a minute or taking a moment to reconsider the problem I'm facing. But even if I successfully deal with the craving once, I get hit with it repeatedly throughout the day, and eventually, I find myself wasting time on the internet.

I desperately need help. I've struggled with this bad habit for years. Tricks like blocking websites haven't worked. I want to get to the root of the problem. How can I change my bad habits and improve my productivity at work?

Answer 1

Not me on Stack Exchange answering this question when I am meant to be working...

So, as you can tell by the preface, I too, have bad internet habits.

The solution for me is that my company requires me to log my time - so long as the work gets done and the time is logged for it. So long as I am available and answer messages/emails promptly during the day - No one bats an eyelid.

This does, however, mean that if I have had a particularly distracted day at work, I might be up in my own time catching up - the work is done, they have gotten their 8 hours of my time out of me - everyone is happy.

But being forced to document your time will help you be a little more disciplined on those little breaks.

Answer 2

I 100% sympathize, and could have said pretty much everything the same way myself. It's a struggle, and I haven't found any silver bullet (even consulting with supposed professionals).

A few thing that have been positive steps for me:

• I do actually have to quit sites cold-turkey. Trying to manage in a limited way does not help. (Similar to what I hear for alcoholics or smoking addicts: a single dose almost surely precipitates a complete fall-off-the-wagon.)

• In particular, avoid sites that are infinite scrolling rather scrupulously. This would include Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. It's too easy to get into an infinite loop/fugue that sucks up hours. If you need to prioritize the cutoffs, Stack Exchange is somewhat better because the pages end (giving an opportunity to jump off), and there are fewer answers per question.

• Keep a time log of activities. If you can go a week cutting off social media, you'll be amazed at how much more time on-task you'll have, and that can serve as additional motivation to stick with it.

• If you do take a break at the computer (surfing the web or somesuch), then that's the critical thing to put on a timer, so you don't zone out for a long time unawares.

• If you can spot these moments of frustration on a task, consider getting up and doing something more physical away from the computer, like taking a walk. For me this often clears my head, reminds me what my larger goals are, and frequently a solution comes to mind at that time.

If you do find some silver bullet some day, post your own answer, as many of us would love to know.

Answer 3

You're asking how to break an addiction. You get a small immediate boost of endorphins from playing on Reddit; hopefully your work also gives you this but the success moments are farther between.

Coming up with more intermediate goals at work, so you have things you can check off and feel good about, may help. But in a very real sense, the only want to break an addiction is to accept that you're going to feel unhappy while fighting it.

I kick myself off SE periodically, deliberately losing my passwords and refusing to use the password recovery function for a month or three. I use Facebook, but I have it VERY tightly locked down with Social Fixer to eliminate most of the temptations to stay on the site. I don't know what's available for Reddit particularly, but it all starts with recognizing that the sites are DESIGNED to keep you connected, understanding how that works, and actively refusing to play the game.

As you say, it's your bad habit. The only thing that can break it, in the end, is you. Tools and tricks can help reduce the temptation, but "a psychiatrist can't change a lightbulb unless it really wants to change." The time you spend searching for an easy solution can become its own timesink; your best bet really may be to do it the hard way.

Answer 4

As you can see by the amount of answers already, lots of people struggle to some degree with the same issue.

One strategy that has yielded results for me is to restrict time-wasters to one device only.

So, like every two months I list my biggest time wasters. Some are dual use, like YouTube and Wikipedia, some are pure wasters, like Facebook, Reddit, and news sites. The pure time wasters I refuse to open on all but one device (usually my personal computer or cell phone). Say I am at work and neeeed a "fix", I grab my cell phone. Previously I had to actually block the sites (in the hosts file), but now I manage the separation mentally.

With that physical separation in place, you control your problem devices: say, have the Facebook/Reddit apps deinstalled on your smartphone, and remove the login cookies: so now you can only access those apps from your personal computer, which you should only access after working hours. On your smartphone, you can restrict the time you spend on apps/sites nowadays. I actually configured mine to have only my significant other know the override password.

Dual-use websites are harder to deal with. I find the mental barrier of no non work-related stuff on my work computer (this is a very strict barrier I erected to myself) also helps a lot in those cases, but I also use a breaks application. Its main purpose is to help you eye strain (take a break and relax your eyes), but it also works as a Pomodoro timer. The goal is to take frequent, short breaks. This not only gives your self-restraint mechanisms a chance to spring into action, but it is also a chance to reassess the work that you are doing—which is also beneficial.

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This strategies helped a lot, but two things are still essential: Understanding the underlying problem, and acceptance.

You have to understand that it is an addiction, and the key to solve it lies only in your mind. If you do what I suggested above and do not understand that, you will find alternative time-wasting sites, slip once and not remove the login cookies, break the cardinal rule of device separation. Mine and pretty much all other techniques only help to create an extra hurdle, giving your self-restraint mechanisms a change to spring to action.

Also accept that, realistically, you will only be able to manage it, not cure it. It makes you less unhappy about it. Noticing that you are not the only one struggling also helps set the expectations to a reasonable level.

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It also seems from your question that you are rather young. Understand that it tends to get better with age. Our brain part (specially the male one) controlling such impulses is not yet fully developed.

Answer 5

This is an issue I've struggled with a lot over my early career. I've applied a plethora of methods to keep myself accountable, to motivate myself and to gamify my workload. You could look at productivity strategies for people with ADHD: If a strategy is effective for a highly distractable brain, a neurotypical brain may benefit as well.

I have a hard time forming or keeping habits. So these strategies require me to put in effort deliberately and indefinitely, which takes up a lot of headspace. I've found that I am more effective if I put myself in the right environment. You may not have this luxury at this time, so I'd recommend keeping it in mind when you apply to future jobs.

In my case, that means picking my employers based on six criteria:

1. Accountability through project-based work, where I work closely with a team.
2. Diversity through limited-duration projects where we try to solve a specific problem over a few months.
3. Focus, through clearly defined responsibilities and a limit on the number of concurrent projects.
4. Meaning through projects that provide a clear benefit to customers or colleagues.
5. Alignment of values, by working on subject matter that feels important to me.
6. And I don't take on remote jobs anymore. Instead, I prefer jobs with a hybrid & flexible WFH policy. I like to work from home if I have engaging tasks that require deep concentration, but I have a hard time being effective on other types of tasks.

Answer 6

Use a separate work computer If you must use the same computer create another user account and use it for work only.

Make sure your workspace is not cluttered with distractions from your reddit IM and other sites where you need to login. The more steps you need to take to check the distractions the easier it is to avoid.

Only when you clock out for a break you can change accounts.

Answer 7

I know this problem very well, and it took me years to find a solution. The only thing that helps me is:

1. Make regular short breaks, e.g. when you switch from one task to another. Do not wait until you are tired.

2. Important: Do not spend this break time on the internet. Never. Concentrate on the reality around you. Daydream for some minutes, look out of the window, watch the birds, the clouds, whatever you can see. No, this is not a waste of time. You waste much more time now. If you need a reward, get a cup of coffee.

This helps me because it gives my brain a rest. If I start to surf the internet when I get tired, this is no recreation. Instead, I keep doing the same thing, staring at a screen, and get even more tired and cannot concentrate.

If I force myself to take regular short breaks away from the screen, I can concentrate much better afterwards, which has reduced my Internet time a lot.

Answer 8

I can't help but point out the irony of asking this question on a site that's driven by the efforts of office slackers. Anyway, needed to get that out of my system.

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So let's start with an ethically questionable argument. Not because that's what I'll conclude on, but because I want to start exploring this as a baseline.

Is your boss unhappy about your performance? If not, what are you worrying about?

Now, before the barrage of downvotes and comments arrive on my doorstep, considering slacking off as an acceptable work pastime is obviously morally grey at the very least. This answer is not intended as a "how to get away with it" manual.

However, at the same time I also feel compelled to point out that a significant amount of office jobs have significant gaps of potential downtime. I can attest to this personally, having worked in many different workplaces, and hearing from friends and peers who also work in offices (in all kinds of roles).
A lot of people are slacking off on the internet for a decent amount of their office work time. I don't have the numbers on it but I would argue that sites like StackOverflow and StackExchange thrive specifically on that excess downtime that office workers have.

This isn't even a joke, I genuinely believe that if you haven't watched it already, you need to watch Office Space. Even though it's a comedy, it genuinely does explore the existentialism that comes with having a boring office job that keeps you wanting to slack off. How the story resolves for the protagonist might just be the resolution that you're looking for (and I'm intentionally not telling you here, it would be better to experience the narrative and not just look up the conclusion).

At the end of the day, there is no objective measure of whether you're meeting your goals, other than whether your manager is happy with your work output (whether you feel like you're meeting your own goals, if you care to evaluate yourself on this).
So if you fulfill the expectations that your employer has of you, an argument can be made that you are fulfilling the role you're employed for. It might not win you any performance awards or career progress, but no one said you have to push for those anyway.

Others may argue that your performance should be measured by what you spend your 8 hours a day doing, rather than by what you deliver in that timeframe. That's a different discussion for a different day, and it's neatly hidden in this answer under the "is management complaining about your performance" criterion, because if management were judging you on what you spend your time on, and you are slacking off, then they would inherently be calling you out on it.

they said they would only give me the job if I was willing to work out problems on my own without bothering anyone. They aren't paying me very much so they aren't taking on that much risk.

No one is really interested in assisting you, and you don't cost the company much. The economic reality here is that you have a very low bar to clear in order to be worth more than you cost. When you're a net positive, you generally don't run into management complaints (unless management squeezes everyone at all times, which is a very different fish to fry that is clearly not relevant for your current scenario).

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But this is not the conclusion of the answer. You asked how to do better. Specifically:

I desperately need help. I've struggled with this bad habit for years. Tricks like blocking websites hasn't worked. I want to get to the root of the problem. What can I do to change my bad habits and improve my productivity at work?

I want to point out here that change is an action on your part. It is not something that happens automatically just because you cleverly change your surroundings (like blocking websites).

Sure, changing your surroundings might assist you in actioning this change, but the cliché quote rings true: change comes from within. Don't rely on external tooling, because if that's the only thing keeping you on task, then the moment you lose that tooling, you will fall off the wagon again.

Sure, you make sure an alcoholic doesn't have access to alcohol while they're going through withdrawal and while in recovery, but keeping them physically removed from alcohol is not a sustainable solution. It's about building an internal drive that gets them to acknowledge the problem, their weakness, powers their own agency, and drives them to act differently even when they're in the vicinity of alcohol.

That internal drive is key to solving the problem. So explore it. Why do you want to do better? If it's about not getting fired, then the previous section applies: as long as your boss is happy, you've done your (literal) job.

But do you want something more? You mention that you took this job as a means of getting experience. I assume this is a genuine feeling that you currently still have.
So act on that feeling. Don't ignore it. Worry about not gaining that experience that you need. Set long term goals for you to achieve, with a significant consequence (either negative for not achieving it, or positive for achieving it; depends on what works for you).

If everything else fails, money is a good incentive. You might be comfortable with your income today, but will that income be enough tomorrow? Would you want to be more financially stable? In order to do that, you need to progress your career. In order to do that, you need experience. In order to get experience, you need to work at problems and not avoid them (which is inherently the avoidance of experience).

Humans are inherently incentive-driven creatures. Everything we do, we do for the benefit that it gets us, whether than benefit is visible or a personal feeling (which is effectively a dopamine injection in your brain).

Find the incentive that works for you, and then use permanent glue to attach your goals to that incentive in a way that you can't back out halfway. A lot of birds only fly when they get kicked out of the nest and the alternative is falling to their death, i.e. they cannot come out of it unscathed if they end up not achieving their goal. They're committed and have to meet their goal, or else.

At the end of the day, others can't decide this for you, because that would mean that (a) you need to be mothered and aren't actually an adult nor working at becoming one, and (b) it raises a lot of eyebrows with regards to someone else having absolute authority over how you live your life.

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This is not a self-help group, and I can't be your life coach (nor IA sponsor) by writing this answer. That's not to say I don't care, I've struggled with similar things in the past, but the purpose of this answer is to reframe how you think about what the problem is.

Answer 9

Don't beat yourself up about it : This 'addiction' is, I believe, more common than most would like to admit. You are by no means alone, particularly in a 'working remote' situation.

The remedy is to get yourself involved in a work related project which truly motivates you. Something you love to do, such that spending time on the internet with other things you would consider a waste of time - just not worth it. Something that fixing that problem which gets you stuck will be the best way to squelch the urge to relieve yourself of the stress of the problem.

Understandably, in your position as an intern, this may be far easier said than done, for any number of reasons. Still, there may be some aspect of an otherwise boring or very difficult project that intrigues you, so focus on that aspect as much as possible, and when 'the urge' hits you, read and learn about that aspect in particular.

Another way to approach this problem is to skip the part that you find very difficult and move on to something easier, instead of taking a stroll on the internet. Come back to the hard part later. You may find it easier the second or third time around. (I do this often - it works.)

Sometimes I will recognize the craving and do something about it, like stepping away from the computer for a minute or taking a moment to reconsider the problem I'm facing. But even if I successfully deal with the craving once, I get hit with it again and again throughout the day and eventually I find myself wasting time on the internet.

Spending a few minutes on the internet may not be the 'waste of time' you think it is. Everyone needs a break if they are doing difficult work, and working remote makes this difficult - in an office environment, people chat for a few minutes with a co-worker or go out to get a coffee or even watch TV! (I worked for years in a very productive, intense environment where they had a big TV set on the wall that showed sports events, understanding that the employees needed some break time.) Don't always berate yourself for browsing an interesting page for a few minutes. But, watch the clock: Give yourself a reasonable time limit for that diversion: "OK, I'm taking a 15 minute break to read about 'whatever', and then I'm going back to work. Take it slow and easy and relax - don't panic and beat yourself up about it, just use a little self discipline.

A way to maintain self discipline is to keep in mind that you have been given an opportunity and you shouldn't squander it. What you can do and learn at a young age, even if it seems difficult and unpleasant sometimes, will serve you well in the future, when absorbing new things might not come so easily.

Answer 10

There are already many great pieces of advice in other answers, but I also came up with one more idea: Try to schedule specific times during the day to browse the internet. Set dedicated times for checking Reddit, Wikipedia, etc.

Knowing you have a set time for social media might help you avoid the temptation during work. For example, allocate one hour for social media and use a timer to keep yourself on track.

Additionally, think about using a time tracker to ensure you don't exceed your browsing time. The tracker will show how much time you spend on different apps and sites. I started using a time tracker about a year ago, and it’s been helpful for staying accountable (I use Traqq, it's free for personal use).

As you get used to this schedule, you might find you can reduce your social media time.

Answer 11

Wear Your Shoes

The other answers address the possibility of addictive behaviors and I think they're on point.

I did want to raise another potential issue that was an issue for myself during the pandemic. I found that one of the issues with working from home created the mental problem from me that I was at home; not at work. For this reason, the allure of other things were a big distraction.

In an effort to help myself with this issue, I made it a point every day to get dressed as though I were going to work normally including putting my shoes on. Sometimes, I would even include a trip to the convenience store for my usual snack before work. The goal was to use my routine to help myself gear up to do work and so it can be a little easier to resist distractions.

Other things I do specifically at work is I log myself out of pretty much every site that I know can become a distraction for me (honestly, I haven't done that with SE, but I should). This means that in order for me to fall into an internet hole, I need to do a lot of intermediate steps like input a user name and password (and some sites even have a 2-step verification). These steps make it harder for me to fall into the hole by accident because there's more chances for me to stop myself.

One last note, I have ADHD and take medication to help control things. I'm not sure how viable these various measures would be without meds. My point is, if you need to see a doctor, you're better off doing it sooner rather than later.

Answer 12

Many answers already, good and to the point.

But none of them addressed something that has been very good for me:

Physical activity! Get tired.

Sports, running, skating, something to burn energy. It not only helped me to focus better and for longer in my work, it also helped me with any other form of cravings (tobacco, sweets...).

After realizing and incorporating this into my daily life, I had much less trouble keeping my schedules and not partaking in easy-to-hook infinite-scroll activities. I gave those certain slots of my time: 10 minutes in the coffee break, 20 minutes in the brunch/lunch, as much time as I want after work day (but then I never use that time because I want to do something else, not browsing shit).

Then, when I find myself stuck at work and I'm not in one of those slots, I urge myself to find something else to escape from the anxiety: I either do one difficult Sudoku (because it is good for that break my minds need but is not infinite-scroll, I don't want to do a second Sudoku after first one) or if the anxiety is high enough I put on my skates and roll for 30-60 minutes, tiring myself. When I get back I feel less pressure, my mind is more chill and it's easier to find the solution I need or and acceptable workaround, and job gets done.

Answer 13

It sounds like an addiction. In which case, reading self-help books is not going to help. Treat it like an addiction and google for clinics that can help. I would suggest sessions with a psychologist wouldn't go astray. A light hypnotic suggestion (if it's legal in your country) works really well.

As an example, my son used to bite his fingernails all the time, until the finger tips were raw. A few visits to a psychologist with a mild suggestion stopped it long enough to break the habit.

Answer 14

Sometimes early on in my career I would find myself in the mood to goof off at work (much like you are describing).. and then on some days I would be in the mood to work at work...but why?

For example after a large lunch with co workers I would almost always relax and goof off for the next few hours after eating (due to carb coma I'm assuming)

Conversely after drinking coffee early in the morning I was in the mood to get a large amount of things done..

What I'm getting at is analyze your daily routine (what you eat and do on a daily basis)..There should be something causing you to be consistently in the mood to goof off...

Answer 15

I myself struggle with the same. It comes in waves, depending on the boringness of the tasks, overall mood and motivation. One tool that helps me, though, is Freedom. Don't know what's so special about it, maybe that I'm paying for it, but when I begin to slack off, I start a Freedom session and I rarely quit it prematurely, and until the end, no wasted time on those sites (it can happen that I waste time elsewhere, but that usually doesn't last long).

Another trick I use is to log out from the social networks I lose the most time with (Twitter in my case), so each time I want to start scrolling down I have to make a conscious decision. It saved me loads of time, too.

Answer 16

"Craving - I feel the urge to relieve myself of the stress of the problem."

Examine the stress and the urge. What about the stress invites that response? Can you pause and live with the stress for a moment? Not the stressor. Be with the physical sensation of stress. Notice where you feel it. Usually will be somewhere in the torso. How strong is it? What about it pulls or repels your awareness? What about it makes it so powerful?

It's some feeling that you don't want to feel, so you flee it. At base it's going to be fear. Above that is probably some fear of feeling the fear. So it makes a kind of feeling knot that is hard to unravel. If you can bring some awareness to those base fears and fears of fears they start losing their power. Spending a couple minutes facing fear, stress, worry can make a big difference in all sorts of situations, and save a lot of time over all. And take all those previous suggestions about breathing and movement and so on.

Now can you go back to the problem that sparked this and live with it for a moment longer than you wanted to earlier? Bring awareness to it? Can you break it down into sub-problems? Is one of those sub-problems interesting and more approachable than the others? Or even just more break-down-able into sub-sub-problems? Resolving any of these will make the main problem smaller and make you stronger.

When you solve a sub-problem, pause a moment and savor that sense of "Yes!" It is its own reward. Remember that reward when you hit a stress point again. I hope that helps.

Answer 17

While you may have a problem with regulating your time on Reddit and other internet time sinks, your work has also set you up for failure. I understand that they want someone who can be a self starter and not need hand-holding, but their attitude (or at least how you perceive it) is problematic. Not getting any feedback on your work is demotivating and can exacerbate any attention/concentration problems you already have.

They have hired you as an intern. The whole point of internships is to provide training for a job in exchange for a reduced salary. However, they have told you not to "bother" them, and nor do they provide feedback on your work. So what exactly are you getting from the company in terms of training? To press the point, about the lack of interaction or feedback: any person starting a new job or project will have questions on how things work, or what exactly is expected of them. So it is shocking that they are not providing an intern with any feedback at all.

It may be that you have misunderstood the amount they are willing to engage with you to help get the with done. Or it may be that they have misunderstood your lack of questions to mean you are fully competent at what you've been asked to do. Or finally, and more cynically, you may have been hired to do the grunt work that no one else wants to do. They don't care how it gets done, and they don't care about employee turnover in the position.

In any of these cases you need to ask questions of your boss. Ask if they are happy with your work. Ask if there's anyway you could improve. Tell them about the stuff you don't quite understand, but want clarification on. Qualify that you are not trying to bother them, just that you want a bit of feedback. If they get irritated by your questions it may be that they are under a lot of pressure his of herself. Or it may be that the internship is a macjob with no prospects. Unless your boss can show you he is a good employer then you need to start working on an exit strategy. If your boss has no complaints about your work then maybe you're good enough and experienced enough to get a junior role rather than an internship.

Answer 18

I think you should give yourself good reasons to keep the reddit/stackexchange browsing breaks shorter.

Doing things unrelated to your work during working hours for long periods of time is called time theft. You can get fired for that, and you won't have a good reference from the job if let go for that reason either.

You really shouldn't be that comfortable doing lots of time theft. These apps are not that obvious and the only hint it is installed would be from your Task Manager (CrowdStrike Falcon is a popular one). Some companies install corporate spyware onto PCs. They log things like what window you have open, what you type, and what URLs you hit.

Managers do not always communicate how they know what they know, or why they are doing what they are doing.

For example, their IT staff might flag you for time theft privately, and let your manager know. Then, when the next round of layoff hits, you might be selected to be let go.

Officially, they needed to cut some staff. Unofficially, they were letting the poorer performers go, without letting them know how they knew they were performing (through the use of spyware)