Introduction

Binge-watching isn’t new and has been done for a long time whenever anyone wanted to watch a "Trilogy", "Series" or "Saga". But some video streaming platforms like Netflix and Youtube really capitalized on the binge-watching model to keep you hooked on to their website as long as possible. According to Matthew Davies, binge-watching can affect us adversely and can be considered an addiction or excessive consumption of media.

The Ways

Here are a few things you can do to break out of that binge-watching loop:

1. Stay Focused or StayFocusd - On the Chrome web store, there is an extension called StayFocusd that does exactly as its name suggests. You can use it to limit the amount of time you spend on any particular site. After you have installed the extension you can add sites to the "Blocked Sites" section. Here you can add Netflix and set the time limit for spending on Netflix each day.

But no need to worry, you can also set up "Active Days" for weekends. Think of it as being equivalent to a "Cheat Day". If you set Sunday as an "Active Day", you can give yourself some leeway to spend extra time than your set limit. If you want to be strict on yourself you can also go for "The Nuclear Option" that allows you to set up a "blackout" for a certain number of hours when you reach a maximum amount of time spent on a site like Netflix. Be careful though, because there is no way to get out of the "blackout".

2. Freedom - Freedom is an app that allows you to do almost the same things as StayFocusd, but on other platforms than your computer. You can use it on your smartphone and tablet so that you follow through all the way instead of binging on Netflix.

3 Set up a challenge - We fail to quit bad habits because we really don’t have much to lose. Every smoker wants to quit, but the long-term effects, bad lungs, low energy, and cancer seems something that is out of reach. The same may be true for the binge-watcher who is aware of the lost time, productivity, and anxiety induced by binge-watching a series for hours.

But short-term consequences may have a different psychological effect. Set up a challenge with real money. For instance, give your roommate or partner $50. Ask them to keep the money if you watch more than let’s say 2 episodes or 2 hours on Netflix each day. If you and the other person share a Netflix premium or standard plan, then it is even better since they can monitor your watch history to check if you are cheating.

Conclusion

Matthew Davies suggests that you take some time off of Netflix to maintain a better state of mind and be more productive. Follow the tips above and try to diversify the way you spend your free time.