30 minutes every day, sometimes 2 hours.
“I’ll just watch a little” – but before I knew it, the night was gone.
For years, I struggled to stop meaningless YouTube watching.
Then I tried a simple method, and my watching time dropped to 0–10 minutes.
No special skills or strong willpower needed – anyone can do it.
Why We Keep Watching YouTube
YouTube’s recommended videos are designed so you never know what will come next.
In psychology, this is called a variable reward, the same principle that makes slot machines addictive.
The expectation of “maybe the next one will be good”
triggers your brain and makes you click unconsciously.
This isn’t a problem of willpower –
it’s simply how the platform is designed.
The Simple Steps to Stop YouTube
You only need to do these steps:
Open History Settings
• Click the three-line menu → “History”
• Click “History”
Turn Off History
• Click “YouTube is saving your watch history”
• Select “Turn off”
• Select “Pause”
Take Back Your Time
I now spend my evenings on reading or workouts instead of endless scrolling.
My satisfaction with daily life has clearly improved.
YouTube is a useful tool,
but you can choose whether you use it intentionally or let it use you.
Turning off recommendations is a simple way to take back control of your time.
About My Social Media
I also document my self-management and habit experiments through Vlogs on YouTube and Instagram.
If you’re curious, feel free to check them out:
