Hello everybody! :)

[Ruggum]

Hello everyone, my name is Ruggum, although my friends call me Rug or Jake (my actual name, duh haha). I'm very new to this community, like I mean just 5 minutes ago I learned it existed, but yeah. I've always been a video game player, and for context I am going into my Junior year of high school. Video games have always been a joyful thing in my life, and for the most part hasn't soured any relations with anyone (but only because I've not done anything but play video games everyday and anytime I could). However, I do see it affecting the amount of work I put into school (when it's actually the school year ofc). I am a Honors Student, I have a good gpa, I'm 12th in my class, but I still feel that I'm not doing the best I can. That's not being like "Oh look at me, I am SOOOO smart unlike you hahaha"'; trust me, I hate that kind of behavior. What I'm saying is, I feel that, no I know that my gaming habits affect my motivation to study and do homework. I am a hard-working student in class because in the school environment, that is what my brain is programmed to. However, at home I become a mess, I say "oh, I'll do that later", "I can do it in study hall", "I'll just look on the answer key for math ugh". When I first get home, I don't actually play games, but I watch YouTube videos; yes, for the most part I watch educational videos (I'm a history nerd), BUT that doesn't justify putting off my homework until the next day and instead getting on my computer and playing whatever game from 6pm-11pm.

Every couple of days now, I find myself questioning this whole backwards way of life I live. I have a spike of motivation for a split second and then I realize "but what will I do besides this?" and I just sit there playing games becoming even more self-loathing and sad (and this is from someone who is overly optimistic and happy most of the time). Part of this comes from me being able to drive now but not having a job yet (I have applied to multiple jobs, haven't gotten a response), speaking of which, I had put off applying until June and July instead of May BECAUSE OF games... I genuinely don't know what to do. I am someone who is incredibly self-conscious, I love taking walks and I love exploring parks and various things, but I hate doing those things alone. I enjoy my real life friends. I do genuinely have things I could do but I guess I'm asking, Is there a way to block games out? Is there other ways to become motivated? How do I get help? Where do I start?! How do I gain motivation to do exercize? How do I get involved in real life things?
I would really appreciate any help that y'all could give and am genuinely looking forward to your responses! Feel free to ask some questions too, I left A LOT out in the sake of some sense of "simplicity"
p.s. Sorry for some incoherent English in there, I wrote this on a whim and I love run-on sentences haha!