Turn off all notifications on the phone. This is the easiest and most effective way to stay away from it.

Some great advice here, probably repeating others a bit but stuff that works for me:

• to do lists for each day / physically writing stuff down
• Generally work in 4 blocks (~60 - 90 mins each), 2 in the morning with a break in between then the same in the afternoon after a decent lunch break. (Afternoons are always less productive mind)
• Seperate work/home laptops. Only work stuff happens on work laptop.
• if I find I’m not being productive I just leave my desk for 5 mins then come back and try again.
• lots of walks

For YouTube stuff I’d recommend an alternative front end like freetube. Much less in your face with throwing vids at you, plus no ads!

I have separate logins on my machine for work vs home.

I also have my obsidian task manager synced on both machines so when non work stuff pops into my head, I add it to my list to work on after work in my personal task manager and get back to work.

I have a sacred 30mins at the start of the day to drink a coffee, and review my work task list, and plan what I will do today. From there, I ONLY work on what’s on the list, unless my boss rings me and changes the priority (or equivalent person etc).

As for not getting sucked into these things at all: I just avoid anything non work related while working, until I’ve achieved my list of work deliverables for the day, and finish work…

That works for me, until I have some work related YouTube video or equiv… I had a 4hr YT Shorts spiral the other day, was just lucky it started at 430pm!

I’ve since found that the DuckDuckGo browser let’s me watch YT videos without going to YT, so I don’t get the autoplay trap sprung one when the work related video is finished, which has helped a lot.

Strict separation of work and personal devices, plus focus mode on my private phone for the work hours.

I often end up hyper focusing on the wrong work tasks, but at least they’re work related.

Smoking weed and playing video games most of the day hasnt worked so far but im no quitter

I work from home, and I have to use lots of methods. Then it works.

Just two examples:

• I always have to work strictly with todo-lists. When it’s not on a list, it’s not getting done. On the other hand, putting it on the list, rather than doing it, feels like 55 % of the mental effort.

• Implementation intention: My brain takes offence to “must do now” orders. Instead, when I catch myself on a youtube/scrolling binge, I set a trigger (e. g. time, end of video) at which I do one item from the list. If there is no list, I write the list. That way, I get to continue enjoying for a bit longer, but now guilt-free (!), and can continue guilt-free after doing that one thing.

I just avoid working from home.

My personal accidental variation on pomodoro - all those meetings I have to attend generate work, and interfere with my schedule. I always schedule time in my calendar for dealing with stuff from meetings.

So if I have a 1 hr meeting at 10a, I’ll add 30 minutes to it in my calendar (generally I only need 10 or 15 min). I’ll also schedule time in my calendar for work that needs doing, mostly to block time so meetings won’t eat up my day.

Sometimes those blocks are for specific tasks (e.g. Something that came out of a meeting) or just a general block so I can do some work between meetings.

No one needs to know why a specific time isn’t available in my calendar (no one has ever asked, and if they did, I’d say “I don’t know, I’d have to look” or tell the truth that it’s to work on something specific). Who could argue with that?

Unfortunately I’ve got nothing to add, just wanted to let you know I’m in the same boat. The feeling of guilt and the inability to structure my day are making me depressed. The company I’m working for doing an absurd amount of “status meetings” is the icing on the cake.

Also corporations steal our livelihood and don’t give a shit about you, so don’t feel that guilty about wasting some of their time. I get it, I get the same way but I have to remind myself of this fact.

Have you tried the pomodoro method to try to help force yourself to take breaks?

The worst part is that I’m hyperly aware that I’m doing it the whole time and I really want to stop but I just want shake myself off of it.

I’d probably seek profession help on that one. That sounds like a legitimate addition.

Tell yourself you’ll try to work for like 5-10 minutes or on the shortest, easiest task you have, and that if you aren’t focusing on it, you’ll take another break after 10. It’s easier to sit down to 10 minutes of work without being committed to a ton after, and it can get you to focus and actually work for an hour plus sometimes.

WFH and the biggest simple hack. Drink water… If properly hydrated you release fluid approx once an hour. Enough to get up and should allow for reset.

No data on this approach other personal experience

I personally prefer the pomodoro technique. The good thing about it, is that it requires a task list to work properly. I start every day by writing down what I need to do today, then use the timer to focus on one task at a time.