How to block YouTube until you read (and actually finish books)

You want to read. You just never do.

You have a shelf full of books you have been meaning to get to. Maybe a Kindle library with 20 unread titles. You tell yourself you will start reading tonight, and then you open YouTube "for a few minutes" and suddenly it is 1am and you have watched six video essays about topics you will forget by morning.

This is not a you problem. YouTube's recommendation engine is one of the most sophisticated attention-capture systems ever built. It knows what you will click before you do. A book cannot compete with that. Books require effort. YouTube requires nothing. So when you are tired, bored, or just looking for something to do, YouTube wins every time.

The result: you consume hours of content that evaporates from your memory, while the books that could actually change how you think sit untouched.

I was the same way. I wanted to be someone who reads. I just was not reading. Then I changed one thing.

What happened when I locked YouTube behind reading

I built Habit Doom to lock distracting apps until daily habits are done. One of my habits is Read. YouTube is on my block list. The deal is simple: I cannot open YouTube until I have done my reading for the day.

Before Habit Doom, I read nothing. Not a single book in months. Since setting up this system, I have finished Mythos by Stephen Fry, Dune by Frank Herbert, started The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler (a bit dry, I will be honest), and just cracked open Dune Messiah. Three books finished in the time I would have spent watching YouTube recommendations I cannot even remember.

I mostly read before bed — usually after midnight, which is not great sleep hygiene, but it replaced doomscrolling so I will take it. I also read when travelling or when I need to take my mind off something. The point is that reading went from something I wished I did to something I actually do. Every day.

How to set it up

Step 1: Download Habit Doom from the App Store. Free to download.

Step 2: Create your reading habit. Tap the plus button and name it something simple — "Read" or "Read 15 min" or "Read 10 pages." Keep it achievable. If you set it to "Read 50 pages" you will skip it and resent the app. Start small. You can always increase later.

Step 3: Block YouTube. Add YouTube to your block list. Consider throwing in Instagram, TikTok, Reddit — whatever else you default to when you are bored. The fewer escape routes, the more likely you are to pick up a book.

Step 4: When you want YouTube, read first. That is the entire system. You reach for YouTube, find it locked, and the path of least resistance becomes your book. After your reading is checked off, YouTube unlocks for the rest of the day.

Why reading replaces YouTube better than you think

Here is something I did not expect: once I started reading consistently, I wanted YouTube less. Not because I was forcing myself away from it, but because reading filled the same need — entertainment, learning, passing time — except it left me feeling better afterward instead of worse.

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one."

— George R.R. Martin

YouTube gives you a quick dopamine hit that fades immediately. You finish a video and feel nothing, so you click another one. Reading builds slowly. You get absorbed in a story or an idea, and when you put the book down you feel like you actually gained something. That feeling compounds. After a few weeks of reading daily, the pull toward YouTube weakens on its own.

My YouTube usage has been trending down without me actively trying to reduce it. I just have something better to do now.

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The streak effect

The first three days feel like a chore. By day seven, the streak starts to matter. By day fifteen, you do not want to break it. This is the same psychology that makes Snapchat streaks addictive, except instead of maintaining a meaningless number, you are building a reading habit.

I am on a 15+ day reading streak now. Some days I read for an hour. Some days I read two pages before bed just to keep the streak alive. Both count. The streak does not care about volume — it cares about consistency. And consistency is what turns "I want to read more" into "I read every day."

Habit Doom tracks your streaks with milestones and status levels. The numbers going up becomes its own reward.

Habit Doom

Lock distracting apps until your habits are done. No sign-in required.

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Books are not the opposite of screen time

The goal is not to stop using YouTube forever. YouTube is genuinely useful and entertaining. The goal is to stop using YouTube instead of the things you actually want to do.

When YouTube is locked behind your reading habit, the framing changes. Screen time is not the enemy. It is the reward. Read first, watch later. You get both — you just get them in the right order.

Every other approach — deleting the YouTube app, setting time limits, telling yourself you will "cut back" — relies on willpower at the moment you are weakest. Habit Doom removes the decision. The app is locked. The only key is your completed reading habit. No discipline required.

Start tonight

Download Habit Doom, block YouTube, add one reading habit, and pick up whatever book has been sitting on your shelf. Tonight, when you would normally open YouTube before bed, you will find it locked. So you will read instead. And tomorrow night, same thing. And the night after.

A month from now, you will have finished a book. Maybe two. And YouTube will still be right there — you will just reach for it less.