Published on August 3, 2025 5:16 PM GMT

The most noticeable bottleneck in my productivity comes from boredom-induced procrastination. Specifically, my process of doing any task on my plate (e.g. meditation, studying, housework, finances/paperwork, etc.) often gets delayed as follows:

I think about doing the task or begin doing the task.At some point within seconds/minutes of this, I get bored. This arises as a felt sensation around my abdomen and throat that feels pretty unpleasant and similar to annoyance.Around the same time, a thought arises about an alternative (usually instant digital distraction, e.g. YouTube or games) that pretty instantaneously seems more enjoyable to me. Sometimes I recognize that this has occurred, but even so this desire is indeed much more pleasant than the extremely unpleasant sensation of boredom.I go and engage in the alternative, largely due to the unpleasantness of the boredom.

I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions regarding the above. I've tried meditation/mindfulness but neither eliminates how unpleasant the boredom is, and website blockers usually just result in me pacing/tinkering around as an alternative distraction. I'd appreciate any possible input or links to past posts on this topic (I couldn't find any via the search function).