The mechanics of distraction are often like this. There is something you know you should be directing your attention to—for instance, paying attention to the road while driving so you can do so safely. Distractions are like "suggestions" that try to lure your attention away. A billboard showing a tasty looking burger may get your mind on what to eat next leading you to start imagining different meal options, provided you do not forecfully direct your focus back to the main activity you are doing.

On the Internet (which for many people means "the workplace"), the physical set up of this is a bit more subtle. If you're doing something like gardening work, you can make sure to direct your eyes and posture at the plants and soil in front of you. However, computers offer a sort of "unified interface" by which all sorts of things may be viewed/done—e.g. games may be played, shopping may be done, information may be looked up and so on. What makes things even more difficult is that oftentimes the nature of the software we use is designed to generate more distractions—infamously smartphones' default notification settings.

Fighting distractions may involve changing habits as well as "settings"—including physical arrangement of stuff. For example, having your browser open to a blank page rather than some splash screen with attention-grabbing headlines may be an effective way to help get to work upon sitting down at a computer. Another strategy that I've come to increasingly appreciate is to actually shut down your computer when not in use. Many people leave their machines on essentially all the time, especially laptops and other portable devices. By design, this is easy; it takes time to start up and turn off devices so it is much for convenient to leave devices on...

Or is it? It is convenient if you want to spend more time on your device. It makes it more seamless to roll plop down on the couch and check your phone. Does it make it easier to make a phone call you need to make, to follow up on an email that has been sitting in your inbox for a long time, and so on?