One of the things with limited success is writing down a tally every time I push myself.
Do an extra set of crunches? Tally. Read through two extra research papers? Tally.
Does anybody else have suggestions for quantifying effort?
For an example counter to yours, I'm a musician. Hours in the studio -- even lazy, half-assed hours -- are a positive thing. It would be a bad idea to discard all the time blocks when I'm not working in the upper quartile of my ability. Lazy time in the game plants seeds for good ideas and increases the odds of having one. It's a bit like solo crypto mining -- you do a lot of grunt work for a big chunk of payout at an unknown interval.
I guess writing down small achievements could help, as a way to visualize the progress you are making, which, in some ways, reflects your effort. Habit-tracking apps[1] (or a simple spreadsheet) allow you to make sure you are on top of what you wanted to do, and I think this strategy works for things like meditation or exercise, or to deliberately practice skills such as playing an instrument or drawing, but quantifying how much effort you are putting during that time seems like a totally different story.
[1]: https://lifehacker.com/the-best-habit-tracking-app-for-iphon...