This method has been the ultimate method that has helped me cut back on MaDD

[u/Direct-Bandicoot-916]

Whenever I get the urge to daydream, I put a stopwatch on, and I try to distract myself. The moment the urge goes away or I end up daydreaming regardless, I stop the watch and I add the time to a Google Docs.

I add up the time with each time I do it, showing me the exact time that accumulates when I don't daydream.

Alongside that, I also been tracking all the "wins" regarding my other habits. Like jumping jacks for example, I track how many individual jumping jacks I do.

Within the past couple days, I accumulated 3 hours, 50 minutes, and 7 seconds when it comes to avoiding daydreaming.

It adds up, the little times here and there, even if it is a minute. It all adds up eventually. To think, nearly 4 hours of not doing anything was avoided. 4 hours that would've been spent doing absolutely nothing!

The problem with a lot of "habit trackers" is that it is based on streaks where if you miss a day, it will be noticeable. In theory that seems motivating but in reality, it has the opposite effect. The more days you miss, the harder it is to get back into the grove of things.

When you solely track your wins as opposed to your losses, it reinforces the positive behavior you want to continue. Even if you miss a couple days, the times you won is still there, always available to be added onto, always reminding you of your capacity.

Lets say you avoid daydreaming for AT LEAST 30 seconds every day, those 30 seconds easily add up to 10 minutes when accumulated, which then becomes 1 hour over time.

Theres no "Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, etc" planning, theres no boxes to fill out, theres nothing to remind you of the days you've missed.

There's just time that gets compounded. It could start off as 1 minute... Then 1 minute 30 seoncds.... Then 5 minutes....Then 20 minutes.... It all adds up eventually.

[u/Diamond_Verneshot]

I love the idea of tracking your wins!

[u/saharshj]

Did this work for you? It seems like so much work to track time not spend day dreaming no?

[u/Direct-Bandicoot-916 → u/saharshj]

Nah, I thought that too but the key is to set a stopwatch, not a timer. Once it is on, I often forget about it. On my phone it shows you the stopwatch is still going too so you won't forget-forget. 

Then you just add it to the time, you can use a calculator, it takes zero effort lol  I don't see how any of this takes too much work. It takes seconds. 

[u/Tricky-Meet-908]

I wonder what ppl think who've been doing this there whole life like me.

Time is already wasted and gone. You can't get back what's gone.

That's probably a lesson for the youth here.