My Method for Curbing my Youtube Habit

29 Apr, 2025

A few years ago, I decided to finally do something to not waste as much time on YouTube. Outright quitting wasn't really an option, as I felt I would be depriving myself of a cultural touchstone. After some experimentation, I have landed on the method below as the one that stuck. It uses the DF YouTube extension and the watch later tab to shield me from any tempting new videos while also setting a time limit to ensure I don't binge.

1. Install the DF YouTube extension and block everything except comments and playlists. This eliminates your homepage and sidebar when watching videos. Get used to mainly using your subscriptions tab while also watching any videos saved in your watch later. An empty watch later is important for the rest of the system to work.
2. While doing this, disable notifications for the videos you watch.
3. Once the watch later is cleared, quit YouTube for 2 weeks.
4. When you come back, add all the videos you are interested in from your subscription tab to your watch later playlist. Start with the most recently uploaded video; this will organize the watch later from oldest to newest.
5. Watch as much YouTube as you can in one day and be fully aware of how bad it feels. Did you watch all your videos at 2x speed? from this point, reduce it to 1.5x.
6. For subsequent days, reduce consumption to 3 hours or something like that. Make it less than what you would normally watch in a day, but still substantial.
7. Every time you run out of videos in your watch later, import more from the subscriptions tab and reduce time by 20 minutes until you reach a desired time limit.
8. I reached an equilibrium of 1 hour at 1.5x speed for 90 minutes worth of video every day. I cycle through my watch later once a week.
9. I can get an extra 5 minutes if I start watching at 8:55 pm (so from 8:55-10) to encourage me to wait until the evening and not stay up late.
10. I have a few exceptions to the 1 hour limit:
    1. Music videos can be watched outside of the time limit
    2. Videos over an hour long can be watched outside of the time limit
    3. If I get behind on my one week cycle (if the oldest video in my watch later was uploaded 8 or more days ago), I add 20 minutes for the first day above 7, then 10 minutes, then 5 minutes for every day beyond that.
11. I have started unsubscribing from 1 channel every time I cycle through videos. I look through my watch later and find the video I am least interested in, and get rid of it.

I have stuck with this regimen for just over a year now, and I can't possibly imagine going back. It has completely removed my desire to binge YouTube, and I hope it helps you too.