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Facing a very similar issue and trying similar things unsuccessfully, I've found out lately with my coach that a more promising way to break out of the cycle of

Facing a very similar issue and trying similar things unsuccessfully, I've found out lately with my coach that a more promising way to break out of the cycle of "wasting time" and beating myself up over it might be very counter-intuitive: Self-acceptance. I've found that acknowledging my need for relaxation and satisfying my curiosity was a solid first step in helping cure my addiction on a more fundamental level. Changing my own internal reaction to realizing I spent the last 30 minutes on Reddit from self-punishment to "Oh, interesting. Looks like I needed a bit of a pressure vent from the complex work I'm doing. I'm worth that. Is there anything even better I could do to myself so I can relax more effectively with quality time off?" at least to me was a way better way to deal with it. I wouldn't say I'm "cured", but I spend way less time with these things, more time I would define qualitatively highly (like playing some piano, walking or just dozing a few minutes). Stopping the internal conflict from the other end might be worth a try for you too, even if it sounds weird.

Reflecticon 5y ago
That makes an awful amount of sense. I sporadically ask myself, what would be the most fun to do for me? And then just do it. After a short period of time, I'm usually exhausted or bored by it and come back to more meaningful stuff. I got this advice from the now habit by Neil Fire. I haven't read the whole book, just skipped forward to the solution but it helps.
- reidalert 5y ago
  This thread resonated with me a lot - instead of dividing time into 'good/productive' and 'bad/unproductive', it's worth acknowledging the signal my brain is sending when it wants to scroll HN/Reddit and responding to it directly, instead of scrolling on autopilot and then feeling vaguely guilty/dissatisfied. The times when I'm able to intentionally take a break feel much more restorative than the times when I'm acting out of avoidance.
  - Trex_Egg 5y ago
    This sounds like mindful procrastination. Good.
xtracto 5y ago
One aspect of that I think is related to "mindfulness ". Oftentimes we get to reddit/hn/twitter as a dumb reaction to a brain feeling. If we think of it explicitly, it's easier to control. One technique that can also work is pomodoro: time 20 mins segments of the "productive" stuff, 3 of these segments separated by a 2 min break. Then reward with 15 min of reddit browsing. It helped me hugely while writing my phd thesis. Which was very painful and prone to lots of distractions.

Reflecticon 5y ago

That makes an awful amount of sense. I sporadically ask myself, what would be the most fun to do for me? And then just do it. After a short period of time, I'm usually exhausted or bored by it and come back to more meaningful stuff. I got this advice from the now habit by Neil Fire. I haven't read the whole book, just skipped forward to the solution but it helps.

reidalert 5y ago
This thread resonated with me a lot - instead of dividing time into 'good/productive' and 'bad/unproductive', it's worth acknowledging the signal my brain is sending when it wants to scroll HN/Reddit and responding to it directly, instead of scrolling on autopilot and then feeling vaguely guilty/dissatisfied. The times when I'm able to intentionally take a break feel much more restorative than the times when I'm acting out of avoidance.
- Trex_Egg 5y ago
  This sounds like mindful procrastination. Good.

xtracto 5y ago

One aspect of that I think is related to "mindfulness ". Oftentimes we get to reddit/hn/twitter as a dumb reaction to a brain feeling. If we think of it explicitly, it's easier to control. One technique that can also work is pomodoro: time 20 mins segments of the "productive" stuff, 3 of these segments separated by a 2 min break. Then reward with 15 min of reddit browsing. It helped me hugely while writing my phd thesis. Which was very painful and prone to lots of distractions.