Tip: If you haven't been doing it already, use extensions to block content pipelines.
Doing this allows you to actually free yourself from planned distractions of certain websites, which is designed to pull in as much as attention as possible
I use Unhook for Youtube :D there are many extensions for Chrome and Firefox meant to clean out recomendations
For iOS users: install AdGuard and go through the steps to make it run on Safari. Then delete the YouTube app and replace it with a shortcut to the website. No ads. You do sometimes have to manually update the filters.
Recently found Whoogle and have been enjoying it a lot. I've got it on an Ubuntu server, but it looks like there are public instances too. It's a more focused, ad free, search. In the settings you can redirect to privacy focused alternatives like Libreddit as well.
Do you have a separate Shorts remover? I looked at settings and you can use Unhook for that too.
I seem to get looped into Shorts, meaning I don't notice how fixated I become watching them until I blink and notice 20 minutes has passed. I just installed Unhook after reading this post and turned off shorts, BUT there are two Shorts creaters I love. Since I set Unhook to only show me my subscriptions, I can still see Shorts that I am subscribed to, which is a good thing. They only make one a day or every other day, so it's not overwhelming. Also, I LOVE that the recommended side bar is gone.
Unhook used to not have that feature but it's been quite a while since I looked at it. Glad this was added.
My main issue is the auto play and the scroll down to view next shirt feature when you watch a short. If there was a way to disable both of those I'd be okay watching shorts from my subscriptions. But if I do it now I get sucked in and lose like half an hour again.
I'm going to have to try Unhook, YouTube distractions are one of my biggest.
The one I use is called LeechBlock, I can set block lists, time of use per unit of time (day, hour, etc), block times on specific days, I can even set it to lock me out of the settings during specific times so I can't easily change things when I'm block out of distractions.
It's on Firefox and Chrome, maybe others but I'm not sure.
Of course it can get really annoying but that's the point really, bother me enough to break the cycle of endlessly clicking the day away.