How Do I Stop Watching Porn When Working From Home?

If you are working from home it can be difficult to handle all the temptations online simple because they are so very easy to access.

It literally takes just 3 seconds for you to move away from your work and onto a porn site, or whatever else erotic temptation you have a habit of imbibing in.

And…BAM…there it is; an hour or two where you're wasting your precious dopamine on low value pleasures.

This is not good!

It's like an alcoholic walking around with a bottle of whiskey in his back pocket 24/7. The temptation is just 3 seconds away and sooner or later, he will cave in.

How to stop watching porn when working from home…

Let's take a look at 5 ways that could help you from just giving in when the urges come.

Read them all and try them out.

The key is to to pick one (or several) that works best for you and your circumstances.

Tip #1 Make an if “X” then “Y” plan…

Start each morning by writing down the following two things in a journal…

1. Are there any particular danger situations I'll be facing today?
2. What steps can I do to reduce my relapse risk if I face them?

In terms of relapse risks, some days could be more dangerous than others.

You may for example have an extra long working day ahead of you. Or you maybe have to collect info from some site that has some triggering images on them. Perhaps you might be working late in the evening, when the relapse risk normally is higher.  Or maybe you have a stressful meeting in the middle of the day, that will make you emotionally upset, and thus increase your risk of relapsing later on.

Whatever it is, write it down in the morning.

Also write down what you could do to help reduce your risk if any of those things were to happen.

This may sound a bit unnecessary, but trust me when I say, it is not.

Just the act of writing it down forces you to go through it in advance, and that alone will help you be much more aware when the situation comes. Even if you can't find any good “antidote” to the increase risk, just the act of writing it down will sometimes be enough.

Example…

Are there any particular danger situations I'll be facing today?

I have to go eat lunch with a business partner at 1PM. I often find myself irritated by him and that'll increase my risk of wanting to escape into the world of porn when I'm supposed to work on my computer later on.

What steps can I do to reduce my relapse risk?

Instead of jumping right into my work after the meeting, I could take a 45 minute long walk to get into a better state of mind. I could meditate for 20 minutes to calm my nerves. I could also end my workday 2 hours earlier than normal, since it's often at the end of the day I most often relapse.

Now, that was just an example of what it could look like.

Sometimes it could be as simple as this…

Are there any particular danger situations I'll be facing today?

I could get strong cravings to watch porn when I'm supposed to work.

What I could do to reduce my relapse risk if it happens?

I'll take a 20 minute break. During that break I'm going to remind myself of why it's important for me to quit watching porn.

Even if what you are writing down is something simple as that, it will help you. It is like you are practice in advance what to do if it happens for real. Kind of like a fire drill in school. And we all know that what gets rehearsed has a much bigger chance of success later on.

What gets rehearsed has a much bigger chance of success!

Tip #2 Work only during “safe hours”…

This can be a bit hard to follow for many people, but it's still useful information so please go ahead and read it.

You see, the fact is that most people who try to stay away from watching porn relapse, or cave in, during the later part of the day. This is because as the day goes on we tend to lose a bit of our willpower.

This means that if you have a habit of working long hours in the later part of the day, you're much more vulnerable to temptations.

Two things you can try here…

1. See if you can do all your work during the early part of the day…
2. Take frequent breaks during your work to allow your willpower reserve to refill a bit…

Important:  during your breaks get away from your computer.  Stand up and physically remove yourself from it.

Sure, a break for many means surfing the net, watching YouTube, social media or reading on some forums,  but for people like us, who want to stay away from porn, that does NOT count as a break.

This is because with  recreational surfing you are still using your willpower to not look at porn. And we can look at our willpower as a battery. Your breaks are supposed to refresh and recharge. Don't drain your battery during your breaks.

You can >>Download<< my Quit Porn Guide for FREE right now!

Tip #3 Use self binding strategies…

This one is something a lot of people has used with great success.

Myself included.

A self binding strategy simply means putting something in place that makes it harder for you to access whatever you shouldn't be doing at the time.

This could be things like fore example…

• Apps that block social media
• Apps that block whatever you want them to block
• Porn blocker apps

Now, first let me make it clear that all of these can be circumvented, depending a bit on the app and how skillful you are. But they still significantly increase the friction between you and the temptation. And often times that's all we need to gain control again.

Tips on good apps that will help you…

Freedom

Personally I use an app called “Freedom” (I'm not sponsored by them), which prevents me from looking at distracting websites during my work hours. And you can choose what kind of websites you categorize as “distracting” according to your own your own beliefs. For example, I'm preventing myself to access YouTube and news sites during my most important work periods.

Another good app to use is the porn blocker and accountability software Covenant Eyes.

Covenant Eyes

This software will both prevent you from accessing adult content as well as monitor your screen activity. It monitors your screen activity in order to see if you're looking at porn, and if you are, it will send a notification to your accountability buddy. Or to your “ally”, as Covenant Eyes calls it.

This makes it very powerful, both practically and psychologically. Especially considering that your accountability buddy is going to get a blurred screenshot of what you are watching (blurred in order to not come as a slap in the face, but still clear enough to see if it was porn or not).

So, if you want to use the Covenant Eyes software, you need to have a friend or family member in on it. Someone that you can choose to be your accountability partner.

By the way, the software only sends screenshots if you're watching adult content, it doesn't report all your internet activity.

Embarrassment…

While it may be a bit embarrassing to ask a friend or family member, I can highly recommend it. Because the software and the concept of having an “ally” (accountability buddy) is so powerful that it has helped thousands of men quit going to porn sites for good.

If interested in this, you can click here to learn more about the software at their website. Also, I happen to know that if you use the promo code STRONGER at check out, you'll get the first 30 days 100% free of charge.

You really think twice before accessing any nasty websites if you know your accountability partner is going to get a screenshot of your activity.

Tip #4 Watch what you eat (yes – it really makes a difference)

This one is a bit of a bummer, as we all want to eat yummy food, but what I'm about to say really makes a difference.

High sugary foods, and other foods that really spikes your dopamine, can make you much more likely to seek out other dopamine stuff for some time you've eaten it (like porn).

I personally call this phenomenon “waking the sleeping dopamine bear” (which is basically just your reward system). If you wake it up with things that takes no effort, but gives you instant pleasure, often times it starts waning more dopamine in whatever form it can get it….

And, as you probably know, online porn is a huge source of dopamine (related post NoFap and dopamine)

In addition to this, fast carbs and sugars spike your blood sugar levels.

Now, when it comes to relapsing to porn, this spike isn't so much the problem as the crash that follows one to two hours after is. Because the interesting thing here is, during a blood sugar crash, most people have less willpower and less self control.

Interesting fact: during a blood sugar crash people have less self control!

The solution…

The solution then, then, is to avoid eating sugar and fast carbs during your work hours and save them for later, when you're done working for the day.

One solution is to use intermittent fasting and only drink water until you're done working. However, if you're not used to fasting, not eating at all can actually make your self control worse in the beginning. For many people, it's only after they've gotten used to it that it helps. So do take that into consideration.

Another solution is to only eat a salad, perhaps some fats with meat without much seasoning, or some other foods that doesn't give you a lot of pleasure during the work day (dopamine, remember).

And, if you eat carbs during the day, go for low glycemic index carbs  (low GI carbs) as they won't give you this rapid spike in glucose levels and thus there is little to no crash.

After I started saving my treats until after my work was over I started to see a vast reduction in my own porn relapse frequencies.

Tip #5  Eliminate your porn cravings with the HCT method…

The last tip here is actually the best alternative of them all.

There is an online course out there called Dopamine Discipline that uses a specific method called habit construction therapy (HCT).

This method has been shown to drastically reduce your urges and desire to watch porn. What's quite fascinating is that people who have done the course often report that they don't even want to watch porn any longer.

Obviously this makes staying away from online temptations much easier!

And if we no longer need to use other tools for avoiding porn, well, then this tool beats all of the other ones.

If this is something that sounds interesting to you, you can click here to sign up to a FREE consultation call, where the creator of the course tells you more about the principles behind it.

This course is the real deal. It's a high quality course created by a licensed therapist who's an expert in helping guys quit their porn habits. I highly recommend it.

Thanks for reading!

-Scandinavian Bob-