I got the following concrete advice from this article:
- Procrastination/distractions are reactions to discomfort: “They’re not character flaws, they’re emotional regulation problems”. So: try to to develop better internal tools to manage discomfort.
- Things like email or items checked off TODO lists are more pernicious, because they feel productive. Recognize this.
- Set a routine (e.g. work 2 hours on writing), not targets (word count).
- When you do sit down to work, expect discomfort, e.g. from boredom, frustration, anxiety, uncertainty. When it arises, instead of trying to get away from it, lean into it: approach it with curiosity, like a scientist.
- When you get an itch to go look up something, instead of acting immediately, set it aside for 10 minutes (I'd say an hour) — and see if you still care at the end of it.
- For urges that don't go away, “surf the urge”: sit with the sensation and examine it.
- Once you have made some progress in managing your internal triggers (e.g. can deal with some discomfort), try to understand your values (the kind of person you want to be/become). Then create a schedule for tomorrow that fits it.
- Remove external triggers, those that tend to distract you.
- For tasks where all this still doesn't help, try some “pacts”, like the one in the article about the $100 bill.
This may not seem “anything approaching concrete advice” but his defence in the article is that this is his strategy: “There isn’t going to be one tactic that works for everyone. You use the strategy to try individual tactics until you find the right formula for you.”