I maintain a set of mind modes which I can 'slip into' while doing anything. These are abstract ideas which help me remember how I felt when something worked for me and I find myself subconsciously repeating most of them periodically.
I name them in odd ways that appeal to me but they are commonly known ideas.
I take a few minutes to mentally prepare myself and accept this mental state, and try to sustain it for a few hours at least if it's working, otherwise switch to something else.
A few examples are -
* Numb & dumb (to be numb to stimuli and dumb in action and keep moving forward with task at hand) - This helps me remember not to be nitpicky about small details, to ignore minor distractions and just do the damn task at hand. In short, to suppress procrastination.
* Plan & Execute (Do not make a single move without a plan) - Helps me think before I act, on certain days when I am overwhelmed and have a tendency to suffer with decision paralysis.
Question : Why would people (these days) be motivated to spend time on reading about a subject slowly as opposed to trying to read short targeted content (blogs/tutorials) quickly and jump into the practical bits?
May be it's just me and the kind of people I have been meeting who do not seem to have as much patience and time and would prefer getting hands-on experience quickly.
I can see how I might sound complaining about going through ~30 pages of information whereas full books with several hundred pages take much longer to read and this is relatively much shorter.
I have had the same feelings for the last few years now.
I started strong at 18 with an explosive growth in knowledge and skill till about 23 years of age. I was praised by pretty much everyone around me and that had turned into a positive feedback loop.
The plateau started when I started giving time to other things in life like relationships and a few other changes.
I am sitting at 29 now feeling that I have not made any progress since I was 23 and I can't get myself to do something about it, much similar to you. I get started sometimes but do not follow through till the end which has now become a behavior.
Recently, after some self assessment and after talking with a close friend about this, I have observed that the things that led to my past success were - time available to commit to a single purpose, absence of any other priorities in life, youth and energy and the biggest one being social approval/appreciation, even if it was on a very basic level (being praised by teachers and friends who were regular people)
In my opinion, if I were to start socializing more in situations where I get to share my interests and knowledge and work with other people interested in the same field, I would start getting feedback again and can learn a thing or two from others at the same time. This would surely revive my interest and keep me motivated to do more, so I can share it with someone.
For us who work professionally, our words of appreciation/praise for others become shallow or emotionless over time and work becomes just work, hence work is rarely a place of motivation for most. (May be things are different at FAANG or fancy startups where people are more driven for excellence)
Another observation I have made about myself is that I have a tendency to day dream grandiose scenarios where I master a technology without anyone's help and build something so cool that the world is going to be in awe of me and I am going to get back to my glory days. This may be true in theory if I were to commit myself to learning or building something and keep making consistent progress but it never happens cause they are just day dreams.
I have a better chance at success if I put myself in a position where people around me are interested in learning and mutual growth. I haven't figured out what would be the right medium to do this yet.
I came across Andreas Kling's YouTube channel just yesterday while reading about SerenityOS on HN and I could relate a lot of my situation after listening to this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNT3VqZApsc