Ask HN: What reading or media consumption rules do you apply?

I just decided a new reading rule for myself: when a popup interrupts my reading I'll ask myself "Does finding out what this says based on what little I know so far matter to me?" If the answer is not a resounding "yes!", I close the tab.

Similarly for a pay-walled article, I might google the title for another source or similar story or just move on to another story.

Lastly I use an HN reader that separates posts by day (and category) so old popular stories aren't mixed with new ones for slot-machine/dopamine effects.