How Obsidian Cured My Doomscrolling

I used to be a doomscroller.

The type who would feel guilty about not doing the things they should be, yet instead scroll the endless feeds hoping the answer to everything was in there somewhere.

The type who got rid of Instagram to stop the habit and found themselves doomscrolling LinkedIn (yes, things got really bad).

Taking stock of the amount of time I was losing to doomscrolling and bottomless feeds was a big wakeup call. This mindless activity was not only taking up time to work on my own goals and creativity, it was taking up time I could be spending with my family.

I could literally feel my brain rotting, struggling for a good time afterwards to read a book again without losing focus as a previously avid reader. I felt a husk of my former self, walking through life more stupid and less focused.

Something had to change.

Obsidian, and note-taking in general, played a big role in helping me overcome these behaviours. I wanted to share some of the lessons, actions and principles I used to regain control and foster a healthier relationship with content consumption.

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STEP ONE: DE-FEED YOUR PHONE

A simple yet drastic measure! If you can bite the bullet and get everything off of your phone, this is a big step in the right direction.

I removed a lot of apps off of my phone that had any type of risk of being distracting. Dumbing my phone in general has had a massive benefit on my life, and whilst incredibly uncomfortable to begin with, eventually I found that I do not miss it at all.

The only apps (aside from the standard iOS apps) that I have on my phone are MyMind, Spotify, ChatGPT/Claude as well as banking & utilities.

When I use social media I have to make a conscious decision to open it on my computer, rather than reaching for it every time I have a spare minute.

It’s surprising how much of a difference that small amount of friction makes.

STEP TWO: FIND YOUR CUES

Understanding the scenarios in which you are most likely to turn to these mindless activities will help you to mitigate them.

For me, I paid attention to it for a few days and tried to make a note of anytime I found myself pulled away and scrolling.

My main culprits were:

The void between work calls - I find myself sometimes with a 5–10 minute gap between calls at work. Without enough time to do anything else, I would fill it with scrolling. Throughout the day, this could be 30+ minutes total.

Focus time, with no clear agenda - I would often block off time in the morning to work on my own projects. Without a clear goal or something to work towards, this time would often be completely squandered. This would set me up for a terrible day, as finishing any doomscrolling session my mind is filled with negativity rather than the endorphins of working on a meaningful creative endeavour.

Relaxing time - In the evenings, sat on the sofa. My wife and I are not big TV watchers, and our phones were easily accessible.

This was something I logged in my Obsidian daily notes, and I was able to go back over the days and look at exactly where my time was going. Every time I found myself unintentionally scrolling, I logged it and what led to that happening and how it made me feel.

STEP THREE: SET YOUR CREATIVE GOALS

One of the clearest signs for me that I don’t have clear enough goals, is falling into the procrastination trap. You don’t know what to focus on, so you focus on nothing.

Don’t get me wrong. The outcome of being more intentional about time spent doomscrolling is not to fill the time with more “productive” activities, unless it makes sense to. It is to be happier with the quiet periods, and then to also make the bigger amounts of time more fulfilling.

Realistically, I am not going to be able to squeeze anything out of the 5 minute slot between meetings. Similarly, I don’t want to replace my downtime in the evening with anything other than spending time with my family. But it’s about being more intentional with what happens in that time, even if that means doing nothing at all.

Intention comes from having clear goals, and knowing you are working towards something. I wanted to create one clear goal, that was mine, and that I could channel energy into outside of work. For me, that was growing this newsletter.

Rather than filling the empty void of time with “busy work” or scrolling socials, I now spend it working towards growing The Thinkers Club. I have never felt more fulfilled.

That looks like a variety of different things that happen within Obsidian:

• Writing an article
• Writing social posts
• Reading other articles and making notes on them for inspiration
• Planning future articles
• Personal branding exploration
• Deep dives on other success stories

It doesn’t need to be complicated, it doesn’t need to be well thought out. It just needs to be something that you genuinely enjoy doing that you can channel some of that energy into that you would usually spend on feed surfing.

I have a lot of software engineers/designers that read this newsletter. For you, this could be learning a new technology, working on a side project, or researching a new way of approaching a familiar problem.

A creative exploration exercise…

Open a blank note and ask yourself three questions:

What am I naturally curious about?

What would I like to be better at, or create for myself?

What’s one small thing I could do to explore that interest this week?

This shouldn’t be something overly-ambitious, but a small thing you are keen to explore.

The important takeaway here is to have something you can turn to when you find yourself with a little bit of spare time.

STEP FOUR: CAPTURE INSPIRATION

I have used Obsidian and MyMind in particular to capture inspiration. This could be anything from examples of people doing work I admire, beautiful photography & designs, a profound article or something that challenges my perceptions.

One of the things I realised about doomscrolling is that, occasionally, you do come across something genuinely interesting, and thats why it is addictive. You convince yourself that the next post might contain something valuable, sometimes it does, but most of the time you have waded knee deep through shit to find it.

I still want to discover things on the internet, it is one of the main benefits, but being intentional about where you find this inspiration is important. I have replaced the usual suspects with other sources - Substack, Cosmos, Are.na. These places have feeds, but you can tell they have not been designed to be addictive in the same way the main social apps have been.

I use both Obsidian and MyMind to collect and process content. MyMind is akin to a personal archive of items that have resonated with me. Obsidian is where I take notes on these treasures and turn them into my own ideas, and do work towards my own goals.

Both of these tools give me somewhere useful to turn to instead of falling into the doomscrolling loop.

Start your collection…

Create a place to collect things that genuinely interest you. It could be MyMind, an Obsidian note, or something as simple as a bookmarks folder.

Over the next week, whenever you come across something worth remembering, save it. The important part is to be selective and intentional. Don’t start collecting things for the sake of it, and don’t mistake saving something for learning something.

Active consumption is a good thing when comparing to the nothingness of doomscrolling. Building a personal archive, a commonplace is a fantastic and valuable pracice.

STEP FIVE: DEEP DIVE ON ONE PIECE OF CONTENT PER DAY

One of the biggest problems with endless feeds is the sheer quantity of information we’re exposed to. You can spend an hour scrolling through dozens, perhaps hundreds, of posts and walk away struggling to remember a single thing you read.

Going deep on fewer pieces of content, I believe, is a great way of combating doomscrolling and this is a habit that I have kept for a long time.

Rather than skimming through an article, video, podcast episode I will spend time with it, explore my own thinking, develop my own thoughts on top of it and take the time to write this all up in Obsidian.

Why did I find it interesting? Do I agree with what the author is saying? Is there something here I could apply to my own work or life?

The idea is to move from passively consuming information to actively engaging with it. Once you get a taste for diving deep on fewer pieces of content, this in itself becomes quite addictive.

Ten minutes of paying attention to something worthwhile and exploring your own opinions and ideas feels very different from ten minutes of scrolling with nothing to show for it other than depression.

STEP SIX: FLEETING NOTES

Fleeting notes is a simple, yet effective concept. A “Fleet” is a quick note, taken to keep track of passing thoughts. They are meant to be captured instantly, so writing something down on the back of your hand when no writing material is present is a good example.

I use the small bits of time between work calls, and when I find myself with nothing else to be doing to take fleeting notes. When I feel myself drawn towards looking at a feed, I try and swap it out to capture a few sentences.

What is on my mind? How am I feeling? Whats next?

I capture these fleeting notes in Obsidian, often directly inside my daily note.

For me, this was a replacement of swapping a negative habit for a good one. These little check in periods throughout the day keep me feeling grounded and I have felt much more in control of my own thoughts, feelings and emotions taking a few moments to check in with myself.

I find myself coming back to ideas and notes I have made throughout the day, thinking about things I’ve read, making connections between seemingly unrelated subjects.

Why am I feeling this way? What has caused it? Is this something I could avoid in future?

Every now and then I turn some of these ideas into articles or other pieces of writing, but most of the time they simply exist as fleeting notes, and that is absolutely fine. The point isn’t to turn every thought into something productive. It’s to get back into the habit of having thoughts of my own and not needing to pacify my own brain through scrolling.

Capture your fleets…

Each day, open a new daily note in Obsidian and write down a few fleeting notes.

Something you have learned, a way you are feeling, an opinion. None of these fleeting notes need to be clever or profound and actually I encourage to keep them as simple as possible.

At the end of the week, take a stroll back through your notes and see what you notice.

Are there subjects you keep returning to? Ideas you’d like to explore further? Questions you haven’t found answers to?

You might be surprised by how much is already going on in your head when you give yourself a little space and freedom to notice it.