1) Try the pomodoro technique, or some other form of time tracking. When you're about to take a side path which may or may not be a distraction, you can decide how long it'd be worth investing in it. Once the timer dings, you can stop and evaluate if it was worth it.
2) A few years ago I started repeating in my head the phrase "real artists ship". Embrace imperfect or partially finished solutions that are viable.
3) Keep a list of things that you'd like to investigate more. I've found that the act of writing down the idea lets me stop obsessing over it. Later when you revisit the list you'll be able to cross off the things that you thought were important, but turned out not to be. By delaying work on these items, you're able to better explore the most important parts of the problem you're solving, and so your future self will be in a better position to evaluate which areas need deep research.
1) Try the pomodoro technique, or some other form of time tracking. When you're about to take a side path which may or may not be a distraction, you can decide how long it'd be worth investing in it. Once the timer dings, you can stop and evaluate if it was worth it.
2) A few years ago I started repeating in my head the phrase "real artists ship". Embrace imperfect or partially finished solutions that are viable.
3) Keep a list of things that you'd like to investigate more. I've found that the act of writing down the idea lets me stop obsessing over it. Later when you revisit the list you'll be able to cross off the things that you thought were important, but turned out not to be. By delaying work on these items, you're able to better explore the most important parts of the problem you're solving, and so your future self will be in a better position to evaluate which areas need deep research.