I would highly recommend not using gloves. They reduce the feedback you have on the bar and can lead to entrenching bad habits with regard to grip. Chalk and the technique in the video are a time-tested approach.

This is for people who lift weights. Do you get calluses along the pads of your hand, just below your fingers? You are probably gripping the bar incorrectly. This also applies to pull-ups/chin-ups grip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OK-S3ZJZxQ.

TL;DR: grip the bar across the joint at the bottom of your fingers instead of across the middle of your palm. This doesn't apply to bench pressing (a push), but applies to all moves that involve pulling/lifting the bar.

You could use the parental controls to lock it down.

iOS has Screen Time, which allows you to set limits on how much you can use an app. I'm sure there is some equivalent on Android.

I made the mistake of purchasing FTL (a game) and had to add a Screen Time rule for it. :)

I strongly recommend playing the SpeechSkills SoundBites[0] game with someone for a few minutes per day. I just had it on my dining room table and after dinner I'd play it for <5 minutes with my partner. My verbal skills - especially in normal impromptu conversation - got dramatically better after a week or two.

Essentially the key is feedback, ideally instantaneous and non-disruptive. So one person reads a prompt and starts their response. The other person starts the timer and merely raises their hand and/or counts the number of "undesirable" words/sounds that come out.

Focus on one skill at a time, e.g. if you are focusing on cutting out filler words, do not even think about eye contact. If you are focusing on eye contact, do not even think about the content of your words.

[0] https://www.speechskills.com/speechskills-resources/soundbit... - but these are really just a bunch of prompt cards. You can make your own or surely find some prompt set for much less, just make sure they're not intellectually or emotionally challenging. The whole point is just verbal processing!

I didn't say it was my only reason. I said "This is a huge reason...". There are quite a few others as well. I didn't list them, because they're irrelevant to the "Ask HN" question, and are therefore off-topic.

I've gotten this feedback from those around me for years. Even before I was a coder, when I was an ESL teacher in China, I had multiple students approach me (those I had made friends with, they were all 20-somethings and over) and ask me if I was OK, because I looked angry. I appreciated their concern but I didn't feel angry, so I had no clue what they were talking about. It was only later that I learned about the concept of a "resting ___ face", and that I might possess one.

This is a huge reason why I support WFH policies and personally take advantage of them. I don't personally feel the need to "fix" myself; doing so would involve putting on an artifice in order to placate people whose impression of me is founded on incorrect assumptions. It would make me feel like I was walking on eggshells, and it would take up precious mental bandwidth which would be better spent on the work problem at hand.

WFH means management of my facial expression is one less thing I have to worry about, since people can only see my Zoom avatar at best, and usually only see the section of the laptop screen that I'm sharing. Counter to what anti-WFH advocates say, it actually makes me more likely to form close bonds with my coworkers, since they're less likely to jump to conclusions about my demeanor and personality if they aren't privy to my facial expression.