Books

I used https://solvingprocrastination.com/

You might feel overwhelmed by how much advice it gives, but you don't need to adopt every suggestion or habit, just what you think works for you.

How to ADHD was already mentioned. Atomic Habits could also be helpful.

not saying you have adhd, but https://howtoadhdbook.com/ is a book i gave to a couple of neurotypical folks and they found a couple of the strategies helpful for them.

and if your default status becomes "being in a rough patch" it might be time to seek help, you are worth that.

which reminds me that i have to get my copy back from a colleague...

I haven't read it yet, but The Willpower Instinct is on my list at some point because I've got good recommendations for it from multiple sources at multiple times, and it looks the part in terms of actually being supported by evidence.

Not a book, but an article

What worked for me was the realisation from articles like that, that I wasn't lazy or unmotivated, just in a loop of: some reluctance to get started → distraction → feeling bad about not having started yet → distraction → feeling even worse → distraction → ...

It was pretty much an emotional management issue rather than a motivation of focus issue.

The solution wasn't to try harder, be more disciplined or structured or anything. The solution for me was to learn to identify the feeling and take a moment to go "I am feeling reluctant to start this and want to do something else. I'm feeling bad which is ok. Now I'll just get started anyway until the feeling goes away" and usually once I got going I felt a bit better

Pretty much I dissociate for a little bit, which sounds bad but it really works for me. The bad feeling for me is mostly at the start, and once I'm actually making progress, that feels good

Longer term I have learnt ways to make getting started easier

• For a cognitively heavy task I try to make the first step easier; e.g. before I leave it one day, I make a note of what the next thing to do is, which means starting it takes less effort.
• For a manual task that is hard to keep doing because it's mentally unstimulating, I do it while listening to an audio book or while having a phone conversation.
• For any big task I try to find small bites I can do and feel I have made progress, so I get a mental reward rather than an insurmountable thing. Even if the big thing is 1000 small bites, if I just make regular progress I will get there in the end.

The more I do these things, the less bad feelings I have about these tasks

Everyone is different and your tools might end up looking different, but there are probably ways you can get past it

I was like that for almost 4 years, during and after the whole covid thing. I could engage with activities outside of my house (gym, sports, going out with friends), but inside was apathy.

Only thing that helped was ADHD medication.

I don't have any recommendations for books on focus/self help etc but some general advice would be to think of a topic that interests you in other aspects of life and find books about that. Also physically move yourself and electronic devices away from each other if that is having negative effects.

In my case I started reading books that were adapted from movies/TV and video games. Stuff like Metro 2033, The Expanse, The Martian, Silo, Jack Reacher, The Bone Collector were what started me off. Then that leads on to other book series from the authors and so on.

As for my phone I leave it in another room when I feel like I need to focus. Not having it in arms reach and out of sight is a huge help.