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 explici

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.