I know because the last couple of weeks I've been more distracted than I have been for a long time. I don't even have the excuse of having too much free time. It just comes down to admitting that I'm addicted to dopamine. Something I thought I overcame has come back in full force. I'm looking at you, YouTube. The strange thing is that I don't even enjoy what I'm watching. Step one is admitting to yourself that you are an addict. I also realize I want to do things differently. The good news is that I've dealt with addiction before and overcome it. The bad news is that I don't really understand exactly how. The only thing I remember is that I spent quite a lot of time observing myself during the addiction and removing the feeling of shame that usually came after. With YouTube, it's the shame of having wasted so much time. Time that I could have otherwise spent doing something that I actually enjoyed. It's critical that I overcome this addiction as the time of day when I'm least susceptible to the need for distraction is my mornings. I do my best work between 4am and 8am. After that it's never as productive, even if it is, I have to do a lot of wrangling to get myself to do something. I know how I operate, the whole willpower thing does not work for me. Maybe in the short term but in the long term it all just falls apart. The thing that does work is understanding the root cause and going from there.
I should have taken some notes when I was working with my addiction to porn. Especially since I have been addicted to it since I was ten or eleven. Something I never thought I'd be able to overcome (pun intended). I'm trying to think why my mornings are so successful. Maybe it's the clear set of things I do every morning. It's wake up, pee, brush my teeth, make coffee and once coffee is ready, stream. Maybe the trick is to keep it going. The challenge is when after the gym I eat breakfast. Because usually it's the time when I watch a "little" something. I have an idea. Something I want to try tomorrow. It's quite simple, just eat in the kitchen standing up. Kinda like I wait for the coffee machine in the morning. Then shower and go straight to the office. Usually once I get started I don't need any nudges to carry on. I can focus for long stretches once started, no problem.
It's a worthwhile thing to work towards. After about five or six in the evening I don't really care. By that time I've done everything I needed to do. So after this post I'm going to make a simple timeline of things I want to do tomorrow and when. Inspired by the Atomic Habits book. Till about five or six in the evening. See where this goes.