So my entire life has been extreme boredom, followed by finding a book/videogame/hobby I find interesting, doing nothing but that for awhile, then never touching it again.
I’m debating maybe trying to make a rule of not doing something two days in a row. Like I just found a video game I liked and played it all day yesterday and today, and while I still wanna play I already feel its shininess wearing off.
Curious if anyone else has tried to space out their dopamine buttons and if it helped. So maybe like instead of just playing the same game tomorrow, I’ll need to try other games, or maybe try to find a new book series to hyper focus on…
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When it come to games, I have tried the “don’t binge” approach and all that happens is that I quit it after one day rather than a week. What I do now is try to be ok with the fact that, with very rare exceptions, I will not finish a game.
Yeah I’ve considered the idea of coming to peace with how my brain works. Which does just mean that sometimes I’ll play one game/do one hobby for a while then drop it, but maintaining a strict regimen for consuming said hobbies is as exhausting as recovering from hyper focus.
No. There needs to be more hours in a day.
Yeah it’s more feasible that I break the time-space continuum than actually consume my finite time responsibly.
I hear all the electrons are the same electron moving forwards and backwards in time!
I have learned to just accept it and go with the flow. If I get bored and move on, that’s fine. If I never go back to the thing I paid a lot of money for, that’s fine. Making rules about these things for myself never increased my enjoyment or happiness.
I’d like to hear how it turns out.
I rarely get a chance to spend hours paying games anymore, and when I finally do get the chance, I can’t ever decide what I want to get into. I’m definitely better off focusing on one thing and milking it dry until something else grabs me. My son will flip through games for 15-30 minute intervals. He’ll start up a new Fallout playthrough, shoot some things, and next time I turn around, he’s fighting a boss in Elden Ring.
Haha yeah that’s how I am most of the time. But occasionally I get the FOCUS on a thing and feel the urge to finish the thing RIGHT NOW.
Yes but in a different way… More about limiting the activity than the time doing the activity.
Basically I find things WAY more fun if I limit the amount of features in the fun thing. For example, if my favorite drink/food store has 10 options instead of 100, then I make a decision easier and enjoy it more since I don’t dwell on it. Or when Minecraft introduced infinite world generation, it became harder to play longer because the possibilities were too overwhelming. Or if someone says “let’s hang out, where do you wanna go” then it is more stressful and more pressure than “let’s hang out, choose between these 3 places”.
In these examples it’s all because of the overwhelming choices being reduced into processable pieces, which means I can stay enjoying the dopamine from doing the activity way faster.
The dreaded Analysis Paralysis!
Don’t try that. You gonna end up totally forgetting about that game and when you think you should try it already, then you cannot find the drive to do so.
just make sure you slow down and savor it
For things like playing video games, I don’t. I’m okay with switching between games several times in an evening. However, when I’m looking at something to buy I try to recognize when I’m hyper focusing on the thing vs having a long term need/desire for. On those things I try to delay purchasing for a while to let the hyper focusing subside.
So for me it’s not really a case of limiting or restricting, but just delaying. I did this recently with a tool for my workshop. I waited long enough to let the hyper focusing subside but also long enough to stumble on an amazing deal on a really nice version.
Yes, doing anything too often can remove it’s shine, that’s just life I’m afraid. I found my useful line is between media consumption and creation. I can easily immerse myself in either to the point I’ll burn out on a game or book to never touch it again - but if I can mix creative work like writing or drawing on some days, games and books on the others, it helps my overall interest and extends my enjoyment of both.
