I was the same before. I could get myself to sit down with a book and read, and wanted to, very much actually, but could only stomach it for 15-20 minutes. Then I was looking for the next dopamine fix. And not every day. It was a bit boring, really, compared to all the things I "learned" from just skimming hacker news.

It took a long time, but now I can easily read for an hour. My normal routine now is to wake up an hour before I have to and read for an hour or so, and then again in the evening read for an hour or so. Reading a book in the morning is really a great way to start the day, I find. I still prefer ending the day falling asleep to the office or something like that.

One of the things that has really worked for me, other than training the practical side of reading for prolonged amounts of time with focus, is to get used to preferring long pieces instead of the quick fixes that is mostly what's online. Before I wanted the quick reads, they felt like I achieved things. Now I want the long pieces, the books, the journalistic marvels that took years to produce and an hour or more to really go through properly. It took time to get here, getting rid of the fear of missing out - which I'm still working on - and understanding that all sorts of things happen in the "now", but almost anything of importance and substance is best "consumed" at a distance - maybe a week or more after it happens. That's especially true for news, except for the odd once that you want to know about right now, but I feel like when that happens, word will get to your from other paths, like family, friends and so on contacting you if it's that important. Any news that is not important enough to warrant your attention after it's a week old, is it really worth knowing anyway?

One counterintuitive trick that has worked for me is to fire up my "manager brain" in daily life. When you do most white collar work, especially as a manager, your job consists largely of filtering a huge number of potential inputs/jobs and focusing intently on the highest value/leverage ones. Instead of fighting my increasing tendency to scan for a new dopamine hit, I allow my brain to wander for a moment and then to consider the highest value option, which frequently turns out to be continuing doing what I'm doing so that I gain the advantages and compound interest of depth in an activity and do not incur the cost of context switching. I will say that this takes a little enjoyment away from going truly deep and achieving flow, for example, where you lose your sense of time and become engrossed in the narrative/activity/whatever, but it's a bit of a jiu jitsu move and allows you to fight the world around you less and use it to your advantage a little more. I still think tuning out and removing distractions is valuable, but it's a good complementary practice.

I've found that there's a "hump" where reading a book where I get bored and want to do something else after 15-20 minutes, but if I'm really engrossed and stick that out, I can find myself literally reading all night long, for hours at a time, until I finish the book. (I'm someone who tends to finish books in 1-2 sittings; I never really understood folks like my mom who'll read for 15 minutes a day and nurse a book for months.)

For that matter, programming's like that too. After a 15-20 minute chunk I'll usually feel a strong urge to go check HN (clearly, I'm in one of those now). If I can resist that urge enough, and have long enough blocks of time (challenging with a kid now), I can find myself coding for several hours straight until I finish the change I was working on.

>I'm someone who tends to finish books in 1-2 sittings; I never really understood folks like my mom who'll read for 15 minutes a day and nurse a book for months.)

I hope it isn't pointless self help book. I used to be exactly like that until I realized how pointless they are.

Once you bust through that 15-20mins you are home free as a reader. Take your book, leave your phone, and read outside. That way if you want to abandon your book to find some little dopamine hit to stay your ADD, you'd have to go all the way back inside.

Even just another room or nook works, or the public library, so long as all you do there is read. You'll begin to associate that spot with reading and have an easier time getting into the reading mindset.

I broke out of a long term video game addiction (I think we can call it that now) a few years ago. I still go back to them from once or twice a year and I'm always surprised by how hard the grip of them is even after just a play or two. Not all games grip me hard but some just suck me in and suddenly I'm burning 5-6 hours a night

Have you tried graphic novels? I've found them good for when I get restless.

How did you break video game addiction? Asking for a friend, while he excels technically in his line of work, he has issues socially which he escapes through video games.

Graphic novels are another form of escape.

Have you tried mindfulness? I've found it useful for literally everything, ESPECIALLY when restless.

What does this mean? What do you mean by mindfulness?

Non-religious meditation, I presume.