I was supposed to do boring life stuff today but I got heavily sidetracked by trying to model a physics problem.
This sort of distraction happens a lot to me, when I'm meant to be doing one chore but drop it and do a different one when I see it needs to be done. Like needing to clean the stove, then noticing the cupboards aren't clean, and then staying up late cleaning my kitchen from top to bottom. The sort of thing where it's hard to find motivation but once I do then I'm unstoppable.
I have a friend on adderall, and how he describes that drug it wouldn't work to help this because it helps you focus, but not necessarily on the right thing. He once took it to finish an assignment and then got fixated on a videogame instead and played it until 5am.
Burnout is such a bitch, that's awesome that you have rekindled some hobbies!! I'll add a caveat that it took months to pavlov myself to fully respond to the timers, there were definitely some times at the start where it didn't even register that an alarm was going off right next to me lol. If you do end up getting a counter to work after time has passed, lemme know or maybe make a post cuz I would love to try it too, it's a great idea!