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Make discipline an important part of your life. Do not rely on motivation or passion or interest to get things done. Tell yourself what you will do and then do it without question. The more you practice this the better your time management and focus will be - your mind has nowhere to wander for excuses because there are no excuses to be made.

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That's good advice, but it must be mentioned that discipline (and attention) are like muscles, you can strengthen them, but you can also strain them to dysfunction. A one-sided approach, where you're always "on" can't work, it needs to be intermittent. You have to pace yourself. In a way, discipline is to be able to do when you're not doing, and to be able to not do, when you're doing. This last point should ring true to those with tendencies to obsess and burnout (like me).

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