How to Stop Wasting Time on YouTube
The 5 Rules You Need to Know and a List of Useful Apps & Extensions
YouTube is an endless well of knowledge.
It’s mind blowing just how much you can learn from it. It’s the place where I discovered self-improvement and digital writing. It’s also the place where I learned 2 foreign languages. It even helped me save my grades and sparked my curiosity for lifelong learning.
But equally, YouTube is a sinister trap.
People spend 2-3-5, heck 9 hours every day on YouTube, consuming videos that bring no value to their lives.
I am no exception. I have wasted more time on YouTube than any other platform.
Less than two years ago, I was watching YouTube for sometimes as much as 9 hours per day. And what’s worse, I actually believed that I was watching ‘good’ videos.
After all, I only watched tech reviews, popular science videos, and self-improvement stuff, not braindead game videos or whatever…
Interestingly, everybody else thinks that way as well…
But who said binge watching self-improvement videos was productive?
There are very inspirational, very educational videos on YouTube, but unless you find a way to FOCUS, you will only be wasting your time. Do you want to know why?
This is how average users use YouTube:
They open the app when they are bored
They scroll through attention grabbing thumbnails
They click on one, watch it till they are bored
Then they go down to the comment section for more cheap dopamine
Then they look at recommended videos and go on a binge-watching session
If that’s what you are doing, the fact that you are watching Alex Hormozi and not a Fortnite streamer doesn’t change much.
After 2 hours of binge watching, you have forgotten 95% of what you have watched, your brain is too unclear to put what you remember to action, so you’ll forget it soon after as well, and as a bonus, your eyes are tired.
The main problem here is a lack of intention.
Instead, this is how we can use YouTube with intention, in order to learn and improve without wasting our time:
Open YouTube only when you decide to watch a video that aligns with your purpose
You watch the video full screen, with no distractions
If needed, you take notes along the way
By the end of the video, you have more clarity on how you can apply what you have learned to your life
You quit the app once you are done
A small warnings before we start:
I will share some useful extensions, but don’t rely on them too much.
At the end of the day, it’s all up to you. Some day these extensions may not work, YouTube may ban them some way, and even if such a thing happens, I want you to still use YouTube intentionally.
That’s why I will share 5 Rules that will be our guiding principles in using YouTube intentionally. Reflect on these rules first, the extensions are secondary.
Some of these rules may seem too extreme for you.
And I confess, these aren’t for everyone. Some people are just okay with wasting their time on mindless entertainment, and if that’s what you want, this letter isn’t for you.
But if you are serious about your self-improvement, if you want to live a life of depth free from superficial distractions, and can wholeheartedly tell yourself “I am the shell of a man I can be if I waste even half an hour on YouTube”, I present you the first rule:
Rule #1 - Don’t Let YouTube Recommend Videos To You
If you want to spend less time on YouTube, the first thing you need to do is to stop watching videos YouTube recommends you.
Let me remind that our goal is to only watch content we know is valuable to us or content we consciously chose to explore. NOT what YouTube tells us to play next or what catches our eye on the homepage.
The easiest way to achieve that is to block the home feed and recommended videos. (see the extensions at the end of the letter)
An unconscious fear of missing out may have popped in your head and you might be asking yourself: “How am I supposed to find new videos to watch, then?”
This brings us to the second rule…
Rule #2 - Save Before You Watch
Once a week or so, scroll through your subscriptions, your home feed, and recommendations.
You will pick some videos to watch later, for the next week or month, or longer. There’s one thing you need to keep in mind though, and it’s to do the picking at a time when you are not tired AND when you are fully focused on picking, NOT while watching some random YouTube video.
I stress the importance of FOCUS, because you need to pick carefully.
You need to watch videos because they align with your purpose, or because your curiosity genuinely drives you to explore them. NOT because a thumbnail grabbed your attention.
Question. What will I learn from this video? Is it worth watching it for 30 minutes? What will I lose if I ignore this video?
Then, if you think it’s worth watching, add it to your Watch Later playlist.
On any day that is not a picking day, only watch videos you have saved. Even on picking days, save videos before you watch them.
Author’s Note: if your watch later playlist is filled with garbage content already, you don’t need to waste your time removing them. Instead, create a new Watch Later playlist or consider creating a new channel.
Rule #3 - Give Your Full Attention to the Video You Are Watching
Put it on full screen.
Don’t scroll down to the comment section.
Don’t flirt with the recommended videos.
You decided to watch the video because you believed there is some value in it. So, don’t distract yourself from it. Give your full attention to it, and soak up as much learnings as you can from it.
Bonus Tip - YouTube Commenting Etiquette
YouTube’s comment section is mostly a waste of time, because people use it without the proper etiquette:
They spend too much time down there, reading comments for cheap dopamine when they get bored of the video.
They share negative comments that do good for no one.
They argue with others, trying to correct them with their mighty keyboards, instead of actually focusing on correcting themselves.
Instead, what you want to do is to block the comment section with extensions, and keep it closed most of the time.
The only time you should open it is when a video makes you wholeheartedly want to thank the creator.
When that happens, open the comment section and leave a genuinely grateful comment to the video maker.
They might see it, if so, it will make their day. Otherwise, you have practiced the skill of giving genuine compliments to other people, and that’s a beautiful skill to have.
Rule #4 - Turn Off All Notifications
You don’t need to know if someone posted a video or if someone liked your comment.
Here’s something important to know: You don’t have to watch all the videos of your favorite creators as soon as they come out!
On your picking days, you will look through your subscriptions, and find videos to watch later. In the meantime, you don’t need to get notified when they post. It’s just a distraction.
And as you’ll only be commenting genuine, grateful comments, what point is there in knowing someone liked or replied to them?
Rule #5 - Quit YouTube Shorts Altogether
I have written an extensive letter on how you can quit Shorts. You can read it here:
How to Stop Wasting Time on TikTok, Shorts and Reels
Short-form videos are junk food for the mind, and they have no place in a healthy lifestyle.
But in short, you need to one, understand that watching Shorts is nothing but a waste of time, and then, use extensions to block shorts altogether.
Useful Extensions & Apps
As I said earlier, the reason why I put these at the end of the letter is that the specific extensions are far less important than the rules I mentioned above.
Read them first if you haven’t already.
Now, here are the tools I use and recommend:
On Desktop:
DF YouTube (DF stands for Distraction Free)
Use this extension to block the home feed, related videos, comments, and the rest.
Download link for Chrome and Chromium based browsers (Brave, Opera, Edge, …)
Download link for Firefox and Firefox based browsers (Waterfox, Tor browser, …)
Unhook
The same as DF YouTube. However, I recommend downloading them both so if one falls, the other carries the torch.
Download link for Chrome and Chromium based browsers (Brave, Opera, Edge, …)
Download link for Firefox and Firefox based browsers (Waterfox, Tor browser, …)
uBlock Origin
A very powerful content blocker extensions. For our purposes, it will be just blocking the ads.
Download link for Chrome and Chromium based browsers (Brave, Opera, Edge, …)
Download link for Firefox and Firefox based browsers (Waterfox, Tor browser, …)
On mobile:
Newpipe
This app is my go to option on Android. There’s no home feed, and you can block recommended videos, and comments in the settings.
Link to download from F-Droid (a google play store alternative)
Firefox Mobile + Unhook
If you are on IOS or if you are on Android and Newpipe doesn’t work for you, you can download Firefox Mobile browser and install the Unhook add-on. Basically does what desktop Unhook does.
Link to download Firefox Mobile
Link to download Unhook for Firefox Mobile
Thank you for reading this week’s letter!
I hope you found it useful.
Send this to a friend who needs to spend less time on YouTube, and subscribe to Get Work Done for more letters on fighting modern world’s distractions!
And, if you have any questions or something to add, feel free to share them in the comments!
This is exactly what I needed, I really relate to this story and had a huge addiction to YouTube in the past. It’s one of those bad habits that comes and goes in cycles and one that I have struggled to break. This afternoon I spent some time mindlessly watching YouTube videos and coping by saying I was “learning” and this article came at the perfect time. Appreciate it Nihad!