Bind Yourself Before the Storm
Remove the option before the temptation arrives.
Identify your biggest distraction trigger for today. Now remove access to it before you need willpower: delete the app from your phone, block the website, leave the device in another room, or tell someone your commitment. Make the distraction physically harder to reach than the work.
You know exactly what will derail your focus and you haven't yet started the focused work session.
The potential distraction is also a legitimate work tool you'll need during the session.
Why it works
Willpower is a losing strategy against a well-designed distraction. Changing the environment before the moment of temptation is the only reliable method.
Your present self and your future self have different goals. Right now, you value the focused work. But future-you, when the phone buzzes, will value the small reward signal. And in that moment, willpower almost always loses — because the distraction is engineered to be more rewarding than the work. The only way present-you wins is by making the tempted action physically harder to reach. Leave the phone in another room. Block the website before you start. Tell someone your commitment. This treats self-control as a design problem rather than a character test. You’re not fighting the temptation. You’re removing it from the battlefield.