When one breaks something down to its components, nothing is new under the sun. I used to feel the same about games several years ago (albeit a little more about story rather than gameplay), but I eventually I reframed that into familiar systems and stories being comfort food. Now I actively seek those things out. That way, I’m generally assured of some enjoyment at worst, and at best I find some fun ways developers are putting twists on frequently-used concepts. Some of my all-time favorites are games I’ve played only in the past few years.

I also felt that way about time wasting, but once I started being more intentional and structured about my daily goal setting and time boxing my day, that went away. Now when I’m done for the day, I’m done for the day and I give myself permission to have downtime. Tangentially, Adderall also helped with this by giving me a hard physical signal to tell me I’m probably not going to get much more done for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, these days now I’m often too tired during the week. 🤷🏻‍♀️

That said, I also don’t like achievements. It’s something I would have loved 30 years ago back when there was way less to play, but there’s too much choice now. I’d rather see what else is out there instead of spending time digging into something I’ve already seen most of. Feels like diminishing returns. Some people really get into it, though.

Forbes 2.0

Yeah, in my personal life it’s not a problem but I gotta do it during work hours. The problem I have is getting a notification and then next thing I know it’s two hours later and I’m still off-task.

NSFW stuff is conspicuously absent.

Although for #3, turning off my email notifications and switching to scheduled check-ins was a game changer for me. Wish I could do it with texting.

I started timeboxing this year and it’s been very helpful. Even if I’m having a bad day and I can only do one pomodoro sprint, it still stacks up, and it’s how I learned the structure itself helps me.

I track my productivity, and I get more done this way than I did flailing about for a week because things didn’t feel quite right.

I don’t personally use generative AI once I’m in progress, but it’s been an absolute godsend for me to overcome the “blank page” problem. I have it help me with an outline or to brainstorm a concept that needs fleshing out and write off of that.

The especially nice thing is I don’t really reference the outline a lot in the end. Something about the process is enough to rattle my brain into an ordered enough state to flow. Like I just needed to get concepts out of my brain and onto a page so I’m not thinking about it while trying to write.

It’s been a game changer.

I’m not musically inclined at all but seeing as how you’re the second one to mention music I’m definitely going to try it. I’ve tried so many other things to help with my listening that a totally different mode might be just the thing.

So, podcasts have been my primary vector for attacking this and it’s been brutal. It’s possible I’ve been overthinking it and maybe I should just struggle through as you say, use speed controls, pause frequently. I was doing the following:

1. Take a small segment (4-5 minutes)
2. Actively listen three times
3. Read a transcript
4. Listen a fourth time and shadow the segment out loud

Supposedly language learning research backs up this method, but maybe it was just overkill and now that I’ve done a few more months of adding vocab and grammar practice, I should just try bulk input again to build up input automaticity and simply pause/rewind where necessary.

The dopamine hit is a real thing!

I’ve barely touched songs as my comprehension is even worse, but this is an interesting approach. I’ll definitely try it. I don’t think I’ve ever tried an audiobook in Japanese of a story I know. Both seem like a good idea.

Yeah, and I also have been supplementing my reading with recorded audio whenever possible, too. My listening skill keeps lagging behind, though.

I wish dedicated listening didn’t frustrate me so much.