By making a habit of actually considering the things I can do, I think I can pick off that low-hanging fruit.
So you basicly want to prevent yourself from “doing X without having consciously decided to do so”. (Doing X is not a problem per se, as long as it is a result of your conscious decision.) And the list of possible alternatives is there to increase the quality of deciding process, by considering more alternatives.
Perhaps there could be another part of this process: to consciously decide not only what to start doing, but also when to end doing it. Instead of evenings it could be better for weekends, when there is more time and more things can be done in sequence. -- Just because I consciously decide to start reading web in the morning, I don’t want to stay online the whole day.
Some activities end automatically, such as watching a movie, where I just have to remember to make a conscious decision what next. For other activites, alarm clock could be used. (If this system works, it would be nice to have some socially acceptable invisible alarm clock that I could use all day.) I can set alarm to the time when I decide in advance to stop my activity; or if I don’t know, just set it on one hour later to consciously decide whether to continue or stop. (It is possible to stop the activity sooner, unless for some reason at the beginning I decide otherwise.)
But it’s better to start only with one habit at a time.
Important: The list of possible things should be in a visible place, to be automatically seen and easily used. (Avoid micro-obstacles.)
So you basicly want to prevent yourself from “doing X without having consciously decided to do so”. (Doing X is not a problem per se, as long as it is a result of your conscious decision.) And the list of possible alternatives is there to increase the quality of deciding process, by considering more alternatives.
Perhaps there could be another part of this process: to consciously decide not only what to start doing, but also when to end doing it. Instead of evenings it could be better for weekends, when there is more time and more things can be done in sequence. -- Just because I consciously decide to start reading web in the morning, I don’t want to stay online the whole day.
Some activities end automatically, such as watching a movie, where I just have to remember to make a conscious decision what next. For other activites, alarm clock could be used. (If this system works, it would be nice to have some socially acceptable invisible alarm clock that I could use all day.) I can set alarm to the time when I decide in advance to stop my activity; or if I don’t know, just set it on one hour later to consciously decide whether to continue or stop. (It is possible to stop the activity sooner, unless for some reason at the beginning I decide otherwise.)
But it’s better to start only with one habit at a time.
Important: The list of possible things should be in a visible place, to be automatically seen and easily used. (Avoid micro-obstacles.)