There is nothing fundamentally wrong with you -- many of us are in the same boat. It's a problem you can make progress on, not an inescapable curse.

When you're addicted to novelty, mechanical approaches like pomodoro or the one described in this post aren't good long-term solutions. I would suggest checking out more mindfulness-based approaches.

Here's my current recipe:

1. Notice when I feel the pull of a distraction. 2. Stop what I'm doing. Literally stop everything for as long as I need to clear my mind. This usually takes about 15 seconds, but sometimes it takes more like 10 minutes. This part is really hard -- when I started doing it, I would feel guilty for "wasting time", even though getting distracted often meant 20 minutes, an hour, or even more completely wasted, and in the worst, most guilt-inducing way. 3. Once my mind is clear, ask myself this question: "What do I truly _want_ to do with this moment of my life?" 4. Do that thing.

If I want to cruise Reddit for half an hour, I'll cruise Reddit for half an hour, and feel good about it. If I want to go back to my original task -- that's great. If I want to call up my dad and see how he's doing, or write a nice note to my wife, that's even better.

Never do anything you don't want to do. It's the _guilt_ that's unhealthy and addicting. Do what you _want_ to do -- and that doesn't have to look like being a programmer/working prodigy all the time.

I regularly fail at this, but over the past year, I've gotten better. And I promise you can, too.

Learn to be happy, and you'll be more productive :)

The only productivity hack that ever worked for me on a multi-year basis was just to do what is intensely interesting to me. Everything else will fall by the wayside sooner or later. There has been no magic in finding those things either. It has been luck of the draw. Though they're usually challenging and provide near endless amounts of novelty for years on end. Once the novelty or challenge wears off the spell is broken.