Hi everyone. This is my first journal progress thread. Feel free to read my introduction post if you haven't yet.

My goal right now is to go for 90 days straight without gaming, and then after that, I might still track them, but not as a streak.

Today:

Day 4 without video games.

Day 2 of spending 30 minutes or more outside.

Today isn't day 1 for these but day 1 for journaling them!

Other notes:

I am studying for my college math final today. It's been hard but not stressful. Thanks to uninstalling Steam I've been able to focus on it better!

Edited May 23May 23 by RealityOptimizer

Welcome warrior. Thanks for joining us!
If you plow through my daily journal you can see I deleted my steam account on the first page. Perhaps that is something you want to do too?

Godspeed!!!

Day 5 without video games.

Day 3 of spending 30 minutes or more outside

It was a 28-minute walk. I got hot and forgot to come back out. I'm still counting it as a win. If it keeps happening, I will lower my goal to 25 minutes.

Notes:

Didn't work on my math final today. Kind of fine, since I wanted a break, but I still wanted to do at least a little.

@Yan I will probably delete it eventually. For now I prefer not even going to the site.

Welcome! We're here for you on your journey, Godspeed!

Thank you Pulse.

Day 6 of no video games

Day 4 of being outside. Will have to adjust the time to something below 30 minutes probably. Today I was out for around 19-20.

Math exam tomorrow morning.

Day 8 without gaming!

Day 5 of being outside. Yesterday I was out for not much, like 10 min. Today was definitely over 30. The new rule is 15 minutes or more.

Finished math exams today. All done for spring semester finally.

On 5/28/2026 at 4:15 AM, RealityOptimizer said:

Finished math exams today. All done for spring semester finally.

I've read somewhere here around the forum that when the tension from exams goes down as the main focus, gaming cravings get stronger. Keep that into account. It could possibly help to have your next step in mind, regarding the next things you're going to focus on.

Way to go on Day 8 and 5 accordingly. Keep it up!

Absolutely you are right on that. Yesterday and this morning I got cravings but thankfully didn't play. Also had pressure from family members so I had to be quick to offer a board game alternative. Since summer now starts for me I will be actually be doing summer classes. I also want to get a gym membership.

Day 10 without gaming.

Day 6 of being outside for 15 min or more.

Not sure if I lost today or not.

I ended up playing a video game that I made earlier this year after realizing I was still paying for hosting services.

I'll still avoid everything else today. I'll keep figuring out if I need to restart or not.

On 5/31/2026 at 8:16 PM, RealityOptimizer said:

Not sure if I lost today or not.

I ended up playing a video game that I made earlier this year after realizing I was still paying for hosting services.

I'll still avoid everything else today. I'll keep figuring out if I need to restart or not.

Thanks for admitting it. Sometimes it's tempting to write it off as "That doesn't count", but a video game is a video game. If by "figuring out if I need to restart" you mean, whether you should continue the streak from 0 or not, my opinion is that you should definitely continue from 0. But remember, you have 10 in your pocket already. Now let's see if you can keep it up longer.

Remember: There is no shame in falling down, there is however a lot of shame in staying down.

One more thought here: Are you developing games as a profession? Or is that just some one-time thing you did?
If that is like a game for learning law for example, and that is what you were concentrated upon maybe you can still not count it..

For example I use duolingo at times, and there are sometimes characters waving there, so you could count it as a video game, but I don't.
I also used flashcards for language studies. So for me, if it is something which I deliberately do towards a long term goal, that is not a video game. In fact they also have very little "video" elements, if at all, but there is a tiny amount there.

They are however really not video games per se...

I don't know if the opportunity to use a video game to study for a longer-term came up if I would have used it. It depends on whether that is 99% concentrated on the subject with 1% video for example, among other factors.

Day 2/90 without ANY video games.

Day 1/90 of being outside for at least 15 minutes. (Now tracking it as a streak too)

@Yan No, it's not a profession for me. It was a platformer game I built in the past when I was learning programming. Not related to my studies or anything.

At first I was a little bummed seeing this with the idea of restarting my 90-day streak, but thankfully today I'm not feeling that anymore. Now I see it as buying more time to stay away from gaming and focus on health.

Thanks for the encouragement to restart.

On 6/2/2026 at 8:08 PM, RealityOptimizer said:

Day 2/90 without ANY video games.

Day 1/90 of being outside for at least 15 minutes. (Now tracking it as a streak too)

@Yan No, it's not a profession for me. It was a platformer game I built in the past when I was learning programming. Not related to my studies or anything.

At first I was a little bummed seeing this with the idea of restarting my 90-day streak, but thankfully today I'm not feeling that anymore. Now I see it as buying more time to stay away from gaming and focus on health.

Thanks for the encouragement to restart.

I think being discouraged is not what you should feel, on the contrary, 10 days is a huge achievement. In fact when I was just beginning to avoid gaming (like 4 or 5 years before I started the journal here) I've just set myself a goal of 21 days. It was already huge for me as a person who used to devote 95% of his free time to gaming. Those are huge steps you're making there.

Maybe you can even put yourself a smaller goal of 21 days and start there. Once you have achieved that you can consider if you want to keep going towards the 90, but one way or the other you'll already have those 21 under your belt.

In any case I just underline here. Every single day you avoid gaming is a win. It doesn't have to be 10, 5, 21, 90, 365 or 3650. Every single one.

Naturally of course building a habit is beneficial and helps "automate" the whole thing, but the single days are what eventually builds a habit, and even if you don't manage to build a very long term one, you can still be proud of a shorter term achievement. There are so many people that don't even dare to call out gaming as the enemy, because they subconsciously know how hard it is to withstand the temptations, and are very scared from the change it may bring. (Among other things, but those are two reasons I assume they don't. Fact is, on the bottom line they don't. But you did and you do.)

Keep it up my man.

Day 3/90 playing zero video games

Day 2/90 being outside for 15+ min.

Back when I'd waste hours gaming, I was rarely keeping care of my oral health. With a 6mm gum pocket, I was on track for developing periodontitis. (Thanks, online chess)

Now today I went back to the dentist and thankfully they said I managed to reverse it just in time. 6 months ago, it was 5mm, and now today, 4mm.

Floss your teeth. Dont be stupid.

highly-immersive activities such as video games make you forget to do the basics. it's quite embarrassing

Day 4/90 no gaming (we came close, hungout with friend and he showed me a game on his phone 😬)

Day 3/90 outside 15+ min

On 6/5/2026 at 8:19 AM, RealityOptimizer said:

Day 4/90 no gaming (we came close, hungout with friend and he showed me a game on his phone 😬)

Hey, didn't see you a few days, are you still there? :) Feel free to get back on top of the missed entries and write a line on each of the missed days. (I do that quite often)
But the longer you go without recovering the missed days, the more blurred your memory gets and the harder it is to document. Which is also not the end of the world, you could then start from where you're at. Nonetheless I choose the way of keeping my diary streak, and therefore would recommend the same to you :)

Appreciate the check in @Yan

I broke the streak. I got sick. Quickly became an excuse to play. Wasn't that bad to start, but then the next few were greatly consumed from gaming's pull.

Time to get back in the swing of things. For now I'm going to keep it very simple and ONLY track my days without gaming, for 90.

Day 0 of no gaming for 90 days.

Notes:

• I want to sell my gaming PC soon. I have a MacBook Air and it does 90% of what I actually need. The only reason I would need the PC now is for some upcoming classes/exams that require working with Microsoft office. But today I sold the gaming monitor.

• I strongly dislike it when my friend talks obsessively about a video game he's into right now, so I want to both figure how to set boundaries around those topics.

• I can already feel the dopamine issues. I want to stay consistent avoiding all this virtual stimulation so that I can get back to making studying feel fun again. I'm serious; I actually found it a fun and satisfying activity just weeks ago, and I'm ready to enter this mode again.

On 6/10/2026 at 10:23 PM, RealityOptimizer said:

Appreciate the check in @Yan

I broke the streak. I got sick. Quickly became an excuse to play. Wasn't that bad to start, but then the next few were greatly consumed from gaming's pull.

Time to get back in the swing of things. For now I'm going to keep it very simple and ONLY track my days without gaming, for 90.

Day 0 of no gaming for 90 days.

Notes:

• I want to sell my gaming PC soon. I have a MacBook Air and it does 90% of what I actually need. The only reason I would need the PC now is for some upcoming classes/exams that require working with Microsoft office. But today I sold the gaming monitor.

• I strongly dislike it when my friend talks obsessively about a video game he's into right now, so I want to both figure how to set boundaries around those topics.

• I can already feel the dopamine issues. I want to stay consistent avoiding all this virtual stimulation so that I can get back to making studying feel fun again. I'm serious; I actually found it a fun and satisfying activity just weeks ago, and I'm ready to enter this mode again.

Glad to see you're back on the proverbial horse. Always remember it's not the end of the world if you relapse, the key is to get back onto the streak as soon as possible, as those neural pathways are still in tact - weakened, but in tact, so the urge to play games will be even less this time around.

Hey @RealityOptimizer Welcome! I agree this is not end of the world if you relapse, wwhat matters is to take lessons from each when happens.

On 6/10/2026 at 11:23 PM, RealityOptimizer said:

I want to sell my gaming PC soon.

Sounds like a plan

On 6/10/2026 at 11:23 PM, RealityOptimizer said:

Appreciate the check in

I'm cheering for you my man, if there's anything I may do to help you pull through the pain, even a tiny bit, I'm glad to.

On 6/10/2026 at 11:23 PM, RealityOptimizer said:

I strongly dislike it when my friend talks obsessively about a video game

If the guy doesn't want to stop playing you might want to distance yourself from him a little ... As Jim Rohn says (If I'm not mistaken it is Jim Rohn.)
You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with

On 6/10/2026 at 11:23 PM, RealityOptimizer said:

I can already feel the dopamine issues.

It is indeed a detox, when you are used to get it so easily, and then take up on tasks that require more time to get it, but are more satisfying in the long term


Keep it up brother in arms.

Just now, Yan said:

Sounds like a plan

P.S. @reader got rid of his Playstation a short while ago, and I remember going through deleting my steam account a few years ago. Maybe you can join the club :)

2 hours ago, Yan said:

P.S. @reader got rid of his Playstation a short while ago, and I remember going through deleting my steam account a few years ago. Maybe you can join the club :)

Ditto! Do it already. If I had not sold that, I would have played for sure :( as I happen to be going through an extinction burst right now. The best you can do for yourself is to sell it@RealityOptimizer !

Thanks guys. I am now 2 days in. Yesterday was a fantastic new start. Instead of selling my gaming PC, I gave it to my dad to use as his new work computer. He was using a low-spec laptop and had freezing issues on his video calls, and we were joking about how much better the gaming PC will handle it. So we set it up together in his office -- it's now out of my room, factory-reset and everything.

Resetting it was a hard process. It was painful to realize how attached I was to the computer when I didn't want to be anymore. But I'm still so glad it's out of my room. Had that feeling of "Wish I did this sooner."

The gaming monitor I sold. Glad it's gone.

For Steam, I added 2-factor authentication going to my parents' devices and then I signed out. Now, if I were to sign in again, I would have to ask them to confirm the login, which seems to be enough to stop myself. But most importantly, the gaming PC is now actually out of the room.

--

My new primary goal is to focus on school. Specifically, I want to continue passing CLEP exams so that I can cut down the cost of college and save time. I'm in the U.S. -- CLEP exams are cheap, standardized tests that you can take on almost any subject, and if you pass, you earn entire credit for a course you would typically have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for. I have done 2 so far, but I want to do at least 15 this year (really as many as possible). This is why I want to stop gaming right now in particular. The only catch with these exams is that not all colleges accept them, but mine does. For example, Harvard does not accept any of them, but most state schools accept a certain amount.

What I need to do to accomplish this goal is to make it a habit of going to the local library and studying there. Even without video games, I find it harder to focus on studying at home. And like what Yan said, I want to find more friends who are interested in taking their schoolwork seriously so that we can motivate each other.

Day 4/90

Still going strong. Currently reading "How to be a Straight-A Student" by Cal Newport.

3 hours ago, RealityOptimizer said:

Still going strong. Currently reading "How to be a Straight-A Student" by Cal Newport.

Sounds like an interesting name for a book :) And a somewhat useful one at that.