Stuck deep in YouTube rabbit hole

Hi, Gopi here.

Ever lost an entire workday to YouTube?
Well I did.

I was the iPad kid - raised on screens, meals spent glued to a tablet.
Every meal would be in front of either a TV, iPad, or monitor.

That was my norm: eat, watch, repeat.

And everyone knows the trap: you open YouTube “just for a minute.” Magically, it’s 3am and you’re watching a guy in Indonesia build a mud mansion with a pool.

We’ve all been there.

It's scary how the feeling looms every time you feel a hint of boredom. Before you realize, your muscle memory has opened a new tab and typed 'y'.

The combination of boredom and YouTube, coupled with my inability to stop after watching one video, created a vicious cycle. Carry on like this for a while and the days will start to merge into each other. No real work will get done.

And I lied to myself, over and over.

“It’s research for my startup.”
“This video will make me a better founder.”
“Maybe this next video is the secret to raising VC.”
Lies. All of them. But they kept me watching.

I lost entire days, sometimes whole weekends - just watching, convincing myself it was productive.

And it had to stop. I knew it had to.

So I did what any stuck founder should do: called another founder.
Luckily, I have the best people around me, my best friend Nooa, who’s been through it too. I asked how he handles the digital rabbit hole.

He had an answer.

Why remove a tool that puts so much knowledge at your fingertips? The focus is on self-constraint. It's about limiting the amount you consume. There's nothing wrong with watching it for entertainment. The main goal is to figure out a healthy balance.

Here’s the system we built:

• No YouTube during workdays.

• Weekends? Fair game.

• Exceptions: Need a specific tutorial for a project - watch, then close the tab.

• Bonus: Stack your weekends with plans so boredom doesn’t win.

Somehow, this worked really well for me.

And I would even schedule some weekend activities with friends, so there'd be no way I would get a chance to open it.

Do I always stick to it? Not perfectly.
I’m human.

Sometimes, I slip.

The real win is breaking that boredom = YouTube reflex. That's the project I'm currently working on.

Because if I don’t, I won’t build the things I care about.
And I won’t get shit done.

p.s.: interested in the stats (how addicted I am?)
https://cv-gopinath.com/WatchTime.html