I used to be like this. I solved it by making my default activity reading (anything, stop if you don't enjoy it, novels are great) and working out. Just getting a week or month break is sometimes enough to break the habit (but best to do it in a way doesn't feel like an endurance challenge - that replaces it with something else fun or stimulating).
I can relate too. Throw in video games and beer too for good measure.
For me there was no big Aha moment or solution to getting distracted from what I actually want to do. It had been incremental steps, such as:
- focusing on consuming long form reading/videos
- heavily curating consumption with RSS, individual settings etc.
- disabling notifications of anything that is not important
- taking responsibility of things that I could avoid, engaging more
- regular exercise and sleep
Things like that. But again, incremental steps. Sometimes I shifted from one distraction to the next, but after recognizing this it becomes clearer what’s happening.
The results are quite powerful. Over just a couple of years I gained so much. I started to get bored of things that would distract me otherwise. I gained confidence and especially courage. I recognize undesirable behavior really quickly now and stopped fooling myself.
