Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Screens and attention
Write down three to five things you actually enjoy, small ones, and do one of them a day. That is the whole instruction.
They have to be yours rather than the ones that sound impressive. Sitting in the garden with tea counts. Ten minutes on the guitar counts. Keep the bar low on purpose, because the point is that something enjoyable happens today, not that you build a hobby. It also gives the day another source of reward, which is what makes cutting back on the other one survivable instead of bleak.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Men and women who remember God often (Quran 33:35). The naming is by frequency rather than by scale, which is the same logic as one small liked thing every day.
إِنَّ ٱلۡمُسۡلِمِينَ وَٱلۡمُسۡلِمَٰتِ وَٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ وَٱلۡمُؤۡمِنَٰتِ وَٱلۡقَٰنِتِينَ وَٱلۡقَٰنِتَٰتِ وَٱلصَّٰدِقِينَ وَٱلصَّٰدِقَٰتِ وَٱلصَّٰبِرِينَ وَٱلصَّٰبِرَٰتِ وَٱلۡخَٰشِعِينَ وَٱلۡخَٰشِعَٰتِ وَٱلۡمُتَصَدِّقِينَ وَٱلۡمُتَصَدِّقَٰتِ وَٱلصَّٰٓئِمِينَ وَٱلصَّٰٓئِمَٰتِ وَٱلۡحَٰفِظِينَ فُرُوجَهُمۡ وَٱلۡحَٰفِظَٰتِ وَٱلذَّٰكِرِينَ ٱللَّهَ كَثِيرࣰ ا وَٱلذَّٰكِرَٰتِ أَعَدَّ ٱللَّهُ لَهُم مَّغۡفِرَةࣰ وَأَجۡرًا عَظِيمࣰ ا
For men and women who are devoted to God- believing men and women, obedient men and women, truthful men and women, steadfast men and women, humble men and women, charitable men and women, fasting men and women, chaste men and women, men and women who remember God often- God has prepared forgiveness and a rich reward
Qur’an 33:35read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
The most relevant tested treatment in this area is a structured psychological one: a systematic review and meta-analysis has assessed cognitive behavioural therapy for internet gaming disorder, the first line approach, about which relatively little had been known. A daily list of small liked activities is not that treatment and has not been tested here on its own. It is a cheap thing to try alongside, and worth describing that way rather than as a proven step.
Stevens MWR, King DL, Dorstyn D, Delfabbro PH. (2019). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for Internet gaming disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.. Clinical psychology & psychotherapy doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Taking the good thing out of somebody's day goes better when there is another good thing left in it.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Sometimes the scrolling is not really about the scrolling. It is about the coursework, or the conversation, or the thing you have not let yourself think about since March.
More hours on social media goes with more anxiety and low mood. That is a reason to aim at fewer hours, a conversation you can actually have, rather than at none, which usually ends the conversation.
If the screen limit in your house is only your preference, every evening turns into a negotiation about your preference. Borrowing a published figure, roughly two hours a day of leisure screen time for a child over two, moves the argument off you.