I don’t usually open YouTube intending to waste time. I’ll go there to watch a specific video, look something up, or catch up on a creator I follow.
Then I’ll see a Short, watch it, swipe to the next one, and somehow end up still scrolling much later.
I recently found a setting buried in YouTube’s settings that offered a simple way to break that habit.
Its Time management feature gave me several ways to interrupt my doomscrolling habit, making it harder for me to disappear into YouTube without noticing.
I checked how much time I was spending on YouTube
It was an eye-opener
Before changing anything, I wanted to see whether I was addicted to YouTube, and the answer was hiding under the Time management setting.
At the top is a section that shows my daily average, along with how much time I spent watching videos today and over the past seven days.
The numbers are based on my YouTube watch history, so it gave me a much better picture of my viewing habits than my vague feeling that I “only watch YouTube for a few minutes.”
On Android, you can get there by opening YouTube, tapping the profile picture icon, tapping the Settings icon, and going to Time management.
The weekly graph was the most useful part for me because it made my YouTube viewing pattern obvious at a glance.
My YouTube feed got a lot less tempting
The problem with Shorts was that there was no obvious reason to stop. I could finish one video, swipe to the next, and continue without making a conscious decision.
That changed when I found the Shorts feed limit inside YouTube’s Time management settings.
YouTube allows users to set a daily limit for how long they can scroll through the Shorts feed, including the option to set the limit to zero minutes. After reaching the limit, YouTube shows a reminder that my Shorts scrolling is paused for the day.
I set a limit that felt realistic to me rather than trying to ban Shorts completely. The important part was giving my scrolling a stopping point instead of leaving me to decide, Short after Short, whether I should keep going.
I also tried setting the limit to zero. That had an unexpected upside: I started seeing fewer Shorts pushed at me on my home page.
The ‘Take a break’ reminder became a stopping point
The reminder snapped me out of YouTube mode
The Shorts limit reduced mindless scrolling but did not address how I often lose track of time on YouTube by starting one video and letting it seamlessly lead into another.
That is where the Remind me to take a break setting came in.
It lets me choose how often YouTube should remind me to step away while I am watching videos. When the reminder appears, YouTube pauses the video, so I have to actively decide whether I want to keep watching or take a break.
Like with Shorts, the reminder is easy to dismiss, but that interruption is exactly what I needed. Instead of reaching the end of another video and automatically tapping the next one, I get a moment to ask myself whether I actually want to keep watching.
You can find the option in Settings > Time management. After toggling on Remind me to take a break, you can choose the reminder frequency.
The bedtime reminder stopped my ‘one more video’ problem
I made late-night YouTube a little harder to justify
My other YouTube problem usually occurred at night. I would tell myself I’d watch one more video before putting my phone down, but I always found another reason to keep watching.
The Remind me when it’s bedtime setting gave me a simple stopping point. I can set a start and end time for when I want YouTube to remind me that it’s time to call it a night.
It also lets me choose whether the reminder can interrupt the video I’m watching or wait until it finishes.
I prefer the second option because it feels less intrusive. If I’m halfway through something I want to watch, I can finish it rather than be interrupted at an arbitrary moment.
But after the video ends, the reminder stops me from immediately reaching for another one.
To set it up, go to Settings > Time management, turn on Remind me when it’s bedtime, and choose a schedule.
I didn’t need to quit YouTube
YouTube’s time management feature has helped me track my content consumption, set limits on Shorts, and establish stopping points with break and bedtime reminders.
While these reminders and limits aren’t perfect, they give me enough of a nudge to realize when a quick video is turning into a much longer scrolling session.
