>But movies and video games I have severe analysis paralysis that leads to a lot of browsing and no actual watching or playing.

I suffered of this problem as well and I believe I managed to solve it.

## Netflix

- I only open Netflix when I know what I'm going to watch.

- When I don't know what to watch it means I'm not in the mood for anything I'm currently planning to watch. So I don't open Netflix, I go to YouTube instead.

- When I know what I want to watch (these days I'm binging Mr. Robot) I favourite things that catch my interest while using the app. This is the only time for new content discovery within Netflix.

## Steam

It might sound ridiculous but I've found that to power through I need to approach games like work. I have to dedicate time for it - a weekend, or even take a vacation (I found that the time around the end of the year works best for me). Since it is something I plan, I discuss what to play with my friends and make a decision beforehand.

When the vacation comes, I make myself play at least 8 hours a day on the same regime as if I was working. After a few days I get into it and then I can continue the game in some normal occasional schedule as well. I've been able to enjoy the Mass Effect games in this way the last winter and Witcher 3 the year before that. I don't think I've managed to enjoy a single player storytelling game to such extent in the decade before that.

I try to avoid opening my 500+ game 80% unplayed Steam library. When I don't know what to play, I don't open Steam, I open YouTube and watch some let's play instead.

Good advice - I think if I approached streaming apps as a means to watch something that I already have chosen to watch, and less as a means of finding something to watch, it would be a more purposeful activity and thus wouldn't feel like something that ends in frustration.

For gaming, there's an added dimension every time I browse my Steam library in that I need to consider not only whether I'm in the mood for each game, but also how long it is, how are checkpoints spaced out, does it have complex mechanics or story line that I would have trouble following if I took a break for a few weeks, etc.

I have identified that starting a new game is the hardest part for me - getting past the tutorial phase, getting into the mechanics and game loop - it always feels like a bit of a chore (that hopefully turns into something fun, eventually). So, just not worrying about it until I can block off a good couple of "work days" to get into it isn't a bad idea.

I should probably give in to YouTube play-throughs more often though. I used to avoid them because I didn't want to spoil the game if I intended to play it some day myself, but realistically I could probably gain a lot of what I'm looking for with less stress this way.

> I only open Netflix when I know what I'm going to watch.

Only to realize that it's not in their library (anymore).

I solved this by simply not using the streaming services as my catalog service. Make the list in something all encompassing like IMDB so when you pull it up you can quickly find what services have your content available instead of the other way around. Jumping on Netflix so I can find what I want to watch is just backwards. If I have a catalog of movies & shows marked watched later and I can't ever seem to find any available on <x service> then why would I keep an <x service> subscription.

This comes with the bonus that recommendations are based on what you have liked across all services not what the service has it thinks it can convince you is good enough based on only what that service has convinced you to watch before. It also keeps your watch history in one place which makes referencing easier.

I'm in EU and this didn't happen to me yet (although I've watched Friends while I could).

It sometimes feels like I'm the only netizen who is happy with the Netflix catalogue, but to be honest I think they have a giant pile of great shows; many more than I have time or mood to watch. I believe the issue is that they produce an even bigger pile of shows that are utterly shit, so if you just play something at random there is a high chance of it being low quality. To me that doesn't matter much as long as there is enough of the good stuff.

Great life hack, what you said on steam. Will try to do that, too.

This might seem weird but here's how I leverage this:

- 99% of the time it confirms tiredness. However it's also an intriguing moment of interest, built into this time of waning energy. And interests are important to seize on, and work with, as they develop.

- I want to get the most entertaining result, for the time being. The symbol processing part of the mind is back-and-forthing with the physical circumstances of exhaustion, so I have an opportunity to get the needed result via symbolic means.

- I focus only on cover imagery and sort by favorite cover images. I let myself decide not to focus on selecting a movie to watch for the time being. I'm just browsing covers. This is not a time to test the focusing attributes of your mind. Instead, the mind is ready to take you for a ride.

- The images start to bring out imaginings or scenarios in the mind's eye, which build on and depart from what's strictly in the cover image. This is good. You can consider it a lucid, pre-dreaming state as well.

- I frontdoor those moments and inner images [1] for rest, interest-pursuit, and analysis purposes if desired.

Since I started doing that and got good results, I wrote a cron script to randomly select sets of book covers from my Google Play Books and Kindle libraries, and I use those the same way.

Another result is that this connection "browse thumbnails" -> "watch or read that thing" is less strict or even necessary. The covers often don't match the contents anyway, and were not typically created by the director or author. So the reading/viewing often hits like a disappointment. This isn't to say that reading is bad though, and you can do the cover-sorting activity above with textual passages from books, or clips from movies.

1. https://www.friendlyskies.net/maybe/frontdooring-a-new-form-...

Interesting ideas - if I understand, essentially the "browsing" phase is a distinct activity from the "watching/reading/playing" phase, and the browsing phase can become its own form of "unwinding" as a sort of meditative activity?

The comment and link are appreciated!

Thanks, and yep you are right on, plus ideally it's an activity that becomes more justifiably standalone over time, as you play with it and discover how and when it can benefit you. With practice it may even become both a tool in the cognitive toolbox and an enjoyable activity to look forward to.

I'm glad if it's helpful.

Same problem. I’ve solved it by not watching Netflix unless a friend with similar tastes recommends something to me directly. I end up not watching much Netflix, which I’ve found is healthier for me anyway. A lot of the “browsing “ or watching in bed was escapism.

If you actually seriously want this: I believe both Android and iOS have some method of tracking time spent in apps (assuming that's what you mean when you say "Netflix App").

I was being partially serious - now that you mention it, between this project's ability to show my time spent watching something, and my phone's app usage, I could probably figure the difference to be the time spent browsing vs watching, which might actually be an interesting metric to track.

I have a list of movies/TV shows in a txt file. New entries go at the end. I watch them in the order I added them. Zero decision fatigue!

> 45 minutes later, I’m tired

I think you're tired to start with, just go to sleep. I realized this with myself and others. Some kind of marketing that "unwind and relax" means you have to watch some TV when sleep will actually bring you more enjoyment.

You can always trade those 45 minutes when you wake up for a movie if you actually want to watch one - and you'll enjoy it more.

I've considered myself "not a morning person" for a while now, but maybe just making sleep the priority at night and attempting to trade that time for a movie or TV show in the morning might be worth a try.

If you haven’t already, disable the preview auto play garbage by going to your profile settings on the website. The option is ONLY available on the website, but applies to all devices that auto play.

You’ll never look back.