Discomfort while trying productivity

I think everyone who has some level of internet addiction deals with this to a certain extent. Your brain is used to more stimulation than what you’re getting from your work. Like nofap, you’re probably going to want to take a break from social media and YouTube as well. What you’ll probably notice is that you’re probably just as addicted to those things as you are porn, and giving it a break will settle your baseline dopamine production

 

Yes I get this, but didn't before the internet.
I approach it like exercise: set a timer and do some healthy reading, make a note of the time and next day do 1 minute more etc etc. Train your brain to want (and enjoy) more helpful things. It takes work, but it's not that difficult when you do it gradually.
You can do this with things other than reading. Exercise is also important. It's about you taking control.

 

Try making “productive activities” more enjoyable and temptations less enjoyable. So when you’re on your phone or your computer, turn on greyscale and disable push notifications. That makes it more boring and less distractible.

 

How can I put certain social media apps on greyscale? Is that possible? Like Twitter?

 

I just use greyscale wholesale- you can do that on your phone settings. For computer I download an app called flux and set it to that.

 

Yes, I'm well acquainted with the feeling. I don't know why or how, but I know it happens to me a lot.

I don't know if there's any way to make it go away, maybe exercise or a nice walk. It's also helpful to figure out reasonable daily goals. For instance, if you're writing a book, writing 1k words a day. Also, changing location and working on the project there is helpful (but not always possible). As you start to work on it and start progressing, the feeling sometimes goes away.

Yet Frankly, those often aren't enough. Push through. It is possible. To prove it, I'm about to go work on my 60k word manuscript , finishing the new section of chapter 1, even though I don't feel like it.

 

Thanks! And just for the record, I actually did go finish that part I was dragging my feet on for the past week. Feels good!