Greetings, Cyre. I think the key factor is in developing one's understanding on a karmic level in conjunction with awareness:- this suggests something more than merely intellectual development. You're quite right though, self-ob is a meticulous job which requires almost 24/7 effort.
If when in the process of crowded thoughts, I tend to alternate between two patterns; listening to what's in my environment (say, if indoors) in relation to my mind, and then alternating to try to listen to what I can hear outside my environment (traffic, birds, etc.). This took ages for me, but I was totally sceptical regarding meditation - I thought it was a put-on to make us passive - but in time it yielded results; for instance I had a former tendency to be a little sarcastic and potty-mouthed, and this disappeared, for eventually in a meditative state I could hear that these elements were a largely external manifestation! A veritable parade of competing "I's", all demanding my attention. The real "I" was simply not like that, though I wouldn't dare to imply that I've located the real "I" yet. Listening to what Aldous Huxley referred to as our "endless idiot internal monologues" can actually be quite funny on occaisions, on others simply frustrating. All those years I wasted being buffeted by consumer culture rendered me a little dim and complacent, and remember, Don Juan warned us that our actual individual faculties are quite low compared to what the "external" influences" have done for us, when in our waking sleep.
For me it's a case of whittling down those very influences, to peer into the reality of our own minds objectively, warts and all! Karma must come into play in this - I was no saint and I can't say I meet many elsewhere - but for all those years when we were living on assumptions a price must be paid. Old friends tell me I've lost some of my charisma, but who cares, as I can now see I was something of a competitive git back in the days when these friends note their recollections. In this process of whittling, we are reducing our external influences, and breathing a little more life into our new potential self.
Anyway, it's just a theory!! But theories, like lessons, are fun to explore.