Blogmark

Hidden goals are when you spend your time differently than what you said you wanted to do. At first glance, you might just call that being undisciplined. But it’s not the same.

I find this framing of hidden goals helpful. In period where I'm easily distractible, I'm pretty hard on myself. I berate myself, "why can't I be more focused, more disciplined with my time?" This gets closer to the truth of why I'm distracted. I have other goals, goals I haven't overtly acknowledged and they are pulling my focus from the thing I think I need to be devoting attention to at the moment. That's its own problem to work out, but at least it is less self-critical.

The article also gives some suggestions for how to navigate these times which all seem better than forcing yourself to push through it.