And you get finished and have this moment of disbelief like... why on earth did I just torture myself for a week over this? For nothing..
* I now focus on developing my own feedback mechanisms rather than worry about assigned/external ones. If you have a large enough number of "required to succeed" and "instant fail if this occurs" signals, you can know roughly how well you are doing without anyone to guide you.
* I focus on work as a cycle, rather than tasks to be cleared out. The converse of the procrastinating is the idea that if you rush around enough, you will open up time for something else, something better, but what that something is, is a big ??? The cyclical approach keeps me more grounded in hammering out a few hours of work on a regular basis, which is more sustainable.
* I look for opportunities to use my "activated" levels of energy to chase after a thread of a problem. I often don't know how long anything takes, but what I do know is that I'm doing more if I periodically throw myself at the work and solve the things I can solve and use the rest to develop more feedback(if I failed: okay, why?) - and doing this cyclically makes it sustainable.
I still have periods where my work energy is low, but the causes are typically more obvious: stress is up, I found a new game that captured my attentiom, etc.
For example say I have a presentation to prep for. For whatever reason, I'm procrastinating - maybe because it's boring or in nervous about delivering it. So I do a small step, perhaps, open my laptop, create a presentation and the title slide. Then it's ok to do something else, but often I will find myself continuing.
(If that's intimidating the step could simply be to sit down and open the laptop.)
If I don't continue that's OK, I don't get frustrated, I take a break (something bounded like coffee, walk, get groceries - not start reading reddit...) then again do a tiny step, perhaps draft one more slide.
Again I often find myself continuing, one tiny step at a time. It's easy to commit to something they just takes 60 seconds. Again if I don't continue I take a little break and so on. Again when I take a break I don't judge myself.
This system has been a revelation for me and I no longer procrastinate until the point of stress. I have also found it helpful to deal with with lack of motivation due to depression. I don't feel able to empty the dishwasher, well I can at least do one cup.
Keys are - establish a regular cue that already exists, either an existing habit or something else regular such as kids leaving for school
- do some tiny step
- if that's intimidating make it tinier. There is always tinier!
- if you find yourself continuing, go with it
- otherwise take a break, without judging yourself. Return immediately you feel ready to make a tiny step. Sooner is better than less tiny
- next tiny step
(I could misremember who said this).
Contrast with the "Feynman approach" described by Gell-Mann:
Write down the problem, think real hard, write down the solution
EDIT: Formatting
(I have a fresh case of this just recently; I was procrastinating on a household chore for a week. I was fully aware that I'll feel great if I complete it, and I'll feel really bad if I keep on procrastinating. That awareness did nothing. It took a realization that my sidearm netbook is still powerful enough to play a TV show to motivate me to go and do the chore, under the guise that I can allow myself to watch the show then. 3 hours and 4 episodes later, a whole bunch of chores was done. And I kind of understand now why some people I know like playing TV shows when cooking or cleaning.)