><i>For example, I would like to study subjects x, y, and z throughout the day.</i><p>Study x, and x only, that day. In other words, reduce scope. Sequential works. Completely shatter something, and then go on to the next thing.<p>Even then, "study" is pretty vague. Having something quantifiable and observable helps. I want to read and summarize in my own words article A this afternoon.<p>After you do something, you should be able to tell if you "did it" or not. "Study" has no beginning and no end. You can't really know if you "studied", but you can know if you did a problem set.<p>><i>It may be that I am spreading myself too thin trying to learn so many various different things, that it overwhelms my mind and the mind retaliates by doing nothing.</i><p>Most likely this.<p>Queuing things works. You want to learn about topic X and found a really nice tutorial but you're doing Y, put it into a task, and keep doing Y.<p>When you have time for X, block two hours, and commit to do X and only X and nothing but X for two hours. You'll be way ahead than trying to octopus your way around learning things.<p>I use TaskWarrior. The files are committed to a repository management system. I can pull them from any laptop. I have categories "read", "watch" for articles or videos.<p>I use "Video Speed Controller" to speed up videos that have no slides up to 16x: the video becomes the slides. I verify that information density is acceptable for the topic I want to learn, and it helps me weed out videos that don't contain what I'm looking for. At 16x, a one hour video becomes 3 or 4 minutes. I can weed out videos pretty fast.<p>I use "YouTube Captions Search" to search text in a YouTube video (from Closed captions). I'll see the treatment of it. I can index that, too, and go back to a video I know addressed an issue and go right back to the timestamp where an issue was talked about.<p>I also aggressively spend money not to waste time on X in order to generously spend time on Y. Always did (even if it meant skipping lunch in college to afford catching a cab home and save six hours daily). These reclaimed hours went to things I wanted to do more than waiting for the bus. These can be intimate life, work, learning, family, health, friends, rest.<p>I'm similar to what you describe yourself to be, and these have worked for me.