1) acknowledging that deciding to watch a movie in the background, or be "kept company" by anything distractingly visual on a second screen, is a subconscious avoidance of the thing you aren't focussing on. Admit it, move on. In reality, I don't believe it is possible to work and watch a second screen. Work and listen to music or the radio? Yes, absolutely.
2) centralise your distractions. You're going to be distracted anyway, so as far as possible choose one thing to be distracted by; something that has its own inherent limits. If you're going to doom-scroll, try a set of interesting RSS feeds instead.
Mastering the subconscious is definitely a top trait for attention management / discipline and quality of life in general.
I noticed this pattern not too long ago: was reading a technical book, felt compelled to drop it and browse Twitter or similar. I "dug" into my head internally to find out a reason why (much like you do in meditation) - I wasn't tired or bored, the book was interesting and I didn't really want to quit it - and I simply couldn't rationalize a reason. It was purely a dopamine-driven habit which I was simply not in control of, it was automatic.
You hear a lot of talk how humans are just as programmable as anything else, and that was one of my personal come-to-Jesus moments.
1) acknowledging that deciding to watch a movie in the background, or be "kept company" by anything distractingly visual on a second screen, is a subconscious avoidance of the thing you aren't focussing on. Admit it, move on. In reality, I don't believe it is possible to work and watch a second screen. Work and listen to music or the radio? Yes, absolutely.
2) centralise your distractions. You're going to be distracted anyway, so as far as possible choose one thing to be distracted by; something that has its own inherent limits. If you're going to doom-scroll, try a set of interesting RSS feeds instead.