I have recently started transferring money to my friends with instructions to only return the money if I accomplish a task by a certain time. I have the deadline be far enough away that I should theoretically be able to accomplish the task without difficulty, but close enough to create a sense of real urgency. In this I am actually USING loss-aversion to my advantage, because damned if I'm going to let him have MY money. I've only used this a couple of times, but so far it has been very successful. Problems: If I schedule the deadline too far out, I don't feel its urgency until it is close, so accurately estimating how long I need to do something needs to be developed. Also, I am still figuring out how to break down big projects into goals that I can give short-term deadlines. Overall I would give this a +5, but I'm still experimenting with it.