It’s not a “quick fix” but meditation really does help build focus, attention, and awareness. If that sounds like it would be impossibly hard, you can definitely start small with something like 10 breaths where you really just pay attention to breathing in and out, and then gradually work up to longer stretches.
I find that meditation has a spillover effect into my life — I’m less likely to be tempted by junk food, let’s say, on the days where I meditate.
Here are some guided meditation recordings that I found very helpful for getting started (if you’re on mobile, scroll to the right for the play button): https://www.uclahealth.org/marc/mindful-meditations
Of these, I have listened to the Breathing Meditation (5 min) and the Body Scan for Sleep (13 min) the most and would recommend them. Maybe keep the 5 minute one open in a tab, and if you find yourself in a procrastinatory tab-switching vortex, break and listen to it.
Here are some longer and more “themed” guided meditations from the meditation guru Tara Brach. She also does weekly livestreams if you’re into that: https://www.tarabrach.com/new-to-meditation/
Aside from meditation, as a gold medalist procrastinator and long-time (~20yrs) Adderall user, I’d caution you against seeking that out to help you with the problem you describe. It can send context-switching behaviors into overdrive and cause a host of other problems. That said, there’s no shame in taking them if they’re right for you (definitely would encourage you to find a doctor that’s comfortable treating ADD etc, possibly a specialist).
For managing tasks, this the only method that’s effective for me: get some {red, yellow, green} post-it notes (color = priority) and a sharpie. Write down every task that is weighing down your mind (this is the basis of the GTD method). One task per post-it, and write down the estimated time in minutes to complete. If it’s a long task (refactor script.py), I convert it into X number of 30 time blocks that I want to spend on it, not necessarily expecting completion by the end of that time. Use the pomodoro method to knock out tasks, and draw a big ass check mark on the post-it when you finish one (feels great!). I also organize the tasks on a whiteboard with the following rows as categories: {health, life, work, finance, education, projects/other}.
This is my procrastination eradication method. There are many like it, but this is mine.
It works, but usually people have a wildly unrealistic expectation of “works”.
When you meditate regularly, you’re building this tiny sliver of ability around awareness. In practice, it may be that you build a fraction of a second of awareness before you fall into old habits. So it doesn’t feel like you’re making any tangible progress, because a half of a second of awareness doesn’t feel tangible.
But it’s a massive lever. It can help avoid getting back on the computer, or losing your cool, or any number of reactive, destructive habits. Avoiding even one of those, once in a while, can be a huge win that starts a snowball effect of positive change.
For a while I was doing 20 minutes a day. I found that hard to maintain, I switched to 12 minutes, and did it every day for 2019. I found the shorter time easier to keep up, and so perhaps more beneficial for me over the long run.
There are stretches where I’m inconsistent for days or weeks, and I try to gently bring back the routine. Or I’ll apply the same focus to something like exercise or stretching.
I use a simple timer app on iPhone called “Timeless”.
There’s a quote that goes something like, “one mindful breath is better than an hour of mindless meditation.”
I find that meditation has a spillover effect into my life — I’m less likely to be tempted by junk food, let’s say, on the days where I meditate.