Quite the interesting but unapproachable topic. Doesn't help that neurology logic on brain-level is dynamic and general rules are hard to extract.

but sometimes I need a little burst of the phone/music to serve as a distraction and force me to unplug from the hard problem that i'm fixated on. once i've successfully started thinking about something else, phone/music off and let the productive mind wandering begin

I find that even if I use my phone while walking I will eventually stop paying attention to the phone.

I find that I have more time to be a dreamer and let more interesting solutions unfold in my mind. After that the planning and execution is much faster.