I have a bit of a problem. I can’t stop saying like.
This is not a new problem. I don’t know exactly when it started, but it hasn’t been less than 8 years or so. It has been going on for so long, and it is so ingrained in my speech, that I don’t even notice myself saying it. And it’s not the first time that I’ve tried to quit either. Refraining from saying it seems like an *impossible* task.
Now let me just say that nearly all of my uses of the word like do serve a purpose. I did start off by saying them intentionally. I can usually justify it’s usage. (I was sure I wrote a blog post defending my usage of the word like, but I couldn’t find it. I even knew the title! But it turns out it was actually Meg who wrote the post, with inputs from me, which you can read on her blog here.) So I don’t really object to the word per say. It’s more just the frequency and the fact that I don’t notice my use of it that bothers me.
But the big problem is that Evie has now picked up the habit. As disturbing as it is to hear myself using like with such frequency, it is 100 times more disturbing to hear her do it.
So I’m trying to quit, but it is not going well. Sara is pointing out every time I use the word. It is absolutely maddening!! I’m hoping that it drives me crazy enough that I will actually think about saying like BEFORE I say it (and before I kill her). Right now I’m to the stage where I notice it after I say it, when it’s too late to do anything about it.
One idea I had was to substitute something else instead of the word like. I decided on ‘for all intents and purposes’. For example, “It’s like the pot holders don’t even fit.” becomes, “For all intents and purposes, the pot holders don’t fit.” Simple right?
Sara even authorized me to substitute ‘fricken’. Although that would not be a great habit either, she maintains it would be fricken less annoying.
Shane Halbach 
My brother counts every time I say “like”. And it makes it really hard to talk.
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I’ve noticed how much you like things. For myself I’ve noticed I’ve been saying “know what I mean” for no reason. This is the less urban version of “know what im sayin'”. I’ve noticed, in conference calls of all things, that almost everyone says this. Now this phrase is like coming out of the woodwork! Know what I mean?
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Find a new word for like. The “for all intents and purposes” is way too much of a mouthful. That sounds worse than like. But I’m not listening to you say “like” a million times a day. Maybe Sara won’t be so happy with “fricken” when Evie starts using it! Good luck.
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Well, for all intents and purposes was (like) a joke.
The problem is that, right now at least, I’m only catching it after I say it (if then). To substitute, I would have to catch it before I said it. In that case, I could probably just not say it.
There has been a few times where I have caught it before I said it and then my brain simply shut down. I couldn’t think of how to talk if I couldn’t say like.
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I find that I say “you know” a lot. As though I need affirmation from my audience. I doesna liek it.
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Matt counts how many times I say like as well, and it is extremely frustrating because he will count for a whole story and then just tell me the number. Which means I still have no self awareness about when or how I use “like” in a sentence. Maybe we are feeding off each other! I find that I use like the most when I am trying to describe a concept I don’t feel like someone is understanding.
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