I think the porn and masturbation are easy brain drains.

The world is feeding us these easy brain drains. The world at large doesn't really want YOU to succeed. Oh sure, your friends and family do, and perhaps a social worker. But people, in general, don't care. This is the situation with mankind. So throughout history, we have collectively created all of the brain drains. Like porn, or endless television, endless youtube watching, blogging, internet surfing, ipod entertainment, slot machines (actual studies show that gambling addiction "reshapes" the brain for dependence), etc....etc...

The trick isn't "how to be smarter". You already have the ability. The real trick is "how to avoid the traps of brain drains." It is all about TIME management, and FOCUS.

Get out a piece of paper. Turn it landscape and divide it into 7 days of the week. Divide each column into 24 hours. Fold it up and put it in your pocket. Every single hour for the next week, take that paper out and write down what you did for that hour. Do NOT get lazy and wait till the end of the day and then try to fill in the whole day. You MUST record it hourly. Just a little two or three word phrase to describe the hour. You only have to do this for one week. You can do it.

After one week, get out some highlighter markers and analyze the data.

One HUGE problem I see with addictions is, the failure rate for going cold turkey. While meanwhile, a lot of successful people engage in these brain drains, they don't waste more than 2 to 4 hours a week on them.

If you are spending 2 hours a day, that is 14 hours a week! You have to find ways of trimming that down and replacing it with meaningful growth. It doesn't matter HOW you find growth. Maybe you get a book on origami. Maybe you buy a guitar and start learning to play. Whatever it is, immerse yourself in it in DIRECT competition with your additions. Get those addictions down to a normal level to avoid having to quit completely.

Know why I get to drink a beer at a party and my buddy can't? Because I only drink 2 to 6 beers a month. And he could never trim his consumption down. He ended up in AA and now he can't touch the stuff. Get your consumption down to 2 hours per week and then life will begin again for you!

IMO