How a day dedicated to the profane improves my well-being

My lizard brain was losing the battle against the internet.

I kept finding interesting things that I just had to read. I knew from past experience that it was unreasonable to attempt quitting reading things on the internet altogether. I might “get clean” for a few days or a few weeks, but invariably there would be something I felt was worthy reading material and I’d be back to my old ways. I felt like the optimal amount of time spent reading news and blog posts was non-zero, but it also wasn’t multiple hours per day.

Eventually I solved my problem by borrowing and inverting an ancient practice: the Sabbath. In some faiths, the core idea of the Sabbath is that it’s a holy day of rest occurring one day per week, a day not to be profaned by certain activities such as work, commerce, or recreational pursuits.

However, instead of refraining one day per week from the “unholy” activities of reading news and blog posts, I flipped it around: one day per week would be set aside for these “unholy” activities, and one day only. I call this day my “anti-Sabbath.” I chose mine to be on Friday.

The anti-Sabbath has multiple advantages. First, it’s a stronger argument, even if it’s less rational. Why can’t I read Scott Alexander’s latest installment of “Bay Area House Party”? Because it’s not Friday yet. My old argument against reading blog posts was mostly an appeal to productivity, which is a much weaker argument. I could always rationalize that I’d really be more productive after a little break, or that it will be a really fast break and then I’ll get back to work. In contrast, I can’t argue very much about which day of the week it is.

Second, the anti-Sabbath helps me be more efficient with my reading. Instead of spreading my internet browsing out over the course of a week, I have to pack it into a single day, in addition to all of the other things I already have to do that day. By the time I get around to reading all the new links in my RSS reader or checking the top page of HackerNews, I’m short on time and I can’t afford to read things that are only slighly interesting to me. I discard links I’m not very interested in, which ends up being about half of what shows up in my RSS reader. If I start reading something and discover that it’s not very good, I’ll stop reading it. Having limited time in which to enjoy the week’s news and other reading helps me use that time effectively.

Third, the anti-Sabbath turns what was once an escape into a chore. Compressing all of my reading into one evening makes it a far less enjoyable experience than if I were to spread it out over the course of a week. Making my distraction reading an unpleasant experience makes it much, much easier to resist on every other day of the week. This has been great for breaking my habit of compulsively checking newsfeeds such as HackerNews.

Finally, anti-Sabbaths help alleviate the fear of missing out that I would get from trying to quit altogether. When I’m worried that I could be missing important events, I can remind myself that really important things will still be headlines by the end of the week, and the things that don’t matter by the end of the week aren’t worth reading at all.