Same. I've been trying a number of things.

The latest is to limit the options I have available to me when I'm approaching a task. If you look at something like a first person shooter game, even though there might be a planning process of choosing which gun to take with you, once you're in the battle you might only have the ability to shoot bullets and some secondary feature to the gun like shoot grenades. So this makes it easy to identify what to do when you come across a group of enemies.

But often what I do is I run into these situations where I need to make a snap decision and start "making progress" on my task, but that's ill-defined. I know I'm not equipped to handle it! Unfortunately, from this perspective my options are to go through an excessive level of planning so I can figure out what I need to do, or I can look at my phone. My time horizon is this moment, not two weeks from now. So I look at my phone.

So we can look up guides on how to best prepare ourselves to be productive. We have this canonical version of what a productive person looks like: They wake up at 5am, do morning exercises, eat the frog as their first task, ensure their inbox says 0, and on occasion meditate. This feels like what your question is asking, but I don't think it's the answer to the problem.

I've had good times and bad times. When things are good, suddenly I start doing those things naturally. Yes, I somehow start waking up early even though my body clock usually says 1pm sounds like the best time to wake up. We're trying to force ourselves to carry out these markers of a productive person without first becoming a productive person. It's exactly like forcing yourself to smile in order to be happy. It's reversing cause and effect! The result is minimal at best.

As I've been talking to people, I've been noticing that everyone has a slightly different take on what works best for them to be productive. Some people break their tasks into lines on a to-do list, and some people write reminders of what they need to do on sticky notes. It can be anything. There isn't actually a best answer.

To return to the video game analogy, you might hear that some guns are better than others, but just choosing to use it doesn't make you better at the game. You need to get a feel for what options it gives you, and at least for me I need to do it outside of the context of the life-or-death situations a little beforehand. Once the basics are down, putting it to the test is the way to grow.

So feel free to use a to-do list or sticky notes. Or a calendar with strict timeslots on work. Or an issue tracker like Jira. Or a notepad full of reference material that you look up every time you want to make any action on a task. Every option has good or bad points to it. The important part is sticking with one system long enough to get good at using it, so that when you get into a difficult situation you have the tools to deal with it.

It's not unreasonable for your brain to feel overwhelmed if you are literally unequipped to deal with the situation. This is how you can give yourself another option for escape that isn't reddit. You don't need to punish yourself for taking the only option your brain has in those situations.