Procrastination is not a time management problem; it's an emotional management problem.

What it comes down to is not having belief in what you do, so you do other things. You might feel trapped, so you pass the time with stuff like YouTube because that is the most compelling thing available to you. A man will walk on broken glass with a smile if he truly believes in what it will accomplish.

When I was younger, I was into video games because they gave me a sense of accomplishment and progress compared to high school, which I found relatively meaningless. I called it progress quest.

When there is a rare game or youtube topic that really obsessively catches your attention, like Factorio, pay attention to it! It helps show you what drives you, and you can try to leverage that into things you find healthier.

Also, it might be worth it to look into ADHD testing if this has been a persistent pattern your entire life.

> When I was younger, I was into video games because they gave me a sense of accomplishment and progress compared to high school, which I found relatively meaningless. I called it progress quest.

Well do I have a game for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_Quest

It's just difficult to tease out at what scale you should address the problem. It requires reflection, ideally together with someone, on where you are headed. Maybe the answer doesn't lie on the level of setting up firewall rules or setting timers but on the level of having to change jobs or even careers, cities, or finding new social connections, or resolving some conflicts with family or whoever. There can be many reasons for escapism like that.

The problem is, in real life you're unlikely to find yourself in a situation where your needs are met, or at least have an action plan how to get there. There are tons of things that go wrong and you can't do anything about that. Stuck in a shitty job? Sucks to be you. Marriage drains you emotionally? Sucks to be you. Mother is sick and you need to take care of her? Again, sucks to be you. "Find a passion" is actually a ridiculously unrealistic standard - most people really do spend their free time just scrolling TikTok.

I'm really really tired of people throwing solutions at my problems while one of the problems is that I'm fundamentally profoundly tired of trying and failing.