The sleep thing strongly suggests a physiological basis. How much sunshine do you get when you first wake up? You might also want to investigate the use of "morning faces" (i.e., watching yourself in a mirror or watching talkshows or other videos with lifesize talking heads for 30 minutes in the morning, every morning).
Adequate amounts of water, omega 3 supplements, L-Tyrosine... any/all of the above may help.
I like being happy and entertained better than being stressed and bored and confused. This makes me want to work less. Not proud of this character trait but not sure how I can rewire my preferences.
That's normal. It'd be a very strange person who preferred being stressed and bored and confused. The thing that makes it stressful is the assumption that you shouldn't be bored or confused, or conversely, that you "shouldn't have to" do things that are boring and confusing.
The trick to changing this isn't to rewire the basic preference, it's to see through the "shoulds" where your brain is arguing that reality shouldn't be the way it is. I find that it helps to identify the should, and then change it to, "I like/don't like", e.g. replacing, "I shouldn't have to do this" with "I don't like it that I have to do this". The former is a way of avoiding the truth; the latter a way of accepting it.
YMMV, of course, since it's not always easy to spot what your "should" is in a given situation, and changing the phrasing doesn't always result in a change of attitude. (You have to really be sincere, for one thing.)
Any other advice?
Identify the cost and/or pain of your proposed solutions, and vividly imagine what it will be like to actually do them. How do you feel? If they make you feel stressed, doing them will likely be a waste of time. However, if you feel that you are willing to experience the drawbacks in order to achieve your goal, then great.
I know I can fuel myself on guilt for a short time, but I don't like it much and I don't think it's practical long-term.
It isn't. Brains tend to interpret chronic stress or conflict as a trigger for unsupervised learning -- and they will evolve clever ways to route around you.
I know what my motivation is (the consequences of failure in my situation are not pleasant) but how to keep focused on the importance of my goal, without spending all my time being miserable and frightened because I'm visualizing the worst-case scenario.
The #1 thing you can do to improve your motivation would be to totally accept the worst-case scenario, as if it has already happened. What is the consequence of failure? Imagine it happening as vividly as you can... NOT as a "what could happen", but as though it has already happened, and there is nothing you can do to "prevent" it. Then, notice what happens next. Where do you go from there? What do you do?
Simply answering these questions off the top of your head will not help -- you must make this as real an experience as possible. If you do, you will find that:
Life goes on, and you with it...
Now that you're not petrified thinking about it, you actually have some positive motivation for the actual goal.
We have a threat-based motivation system that's distinct from our values-based motivation, and it's on a computational fast path. On that fast path, you get emotional responses to cached thoughts of possible bad outcomes, that exert strong local influence on behavior, and cut off thoughts in the region of the aversion -- the "ugh field" as some here call it.
However, if you actually think through (in a vivid, experiential way) what the REAL outcome of your imagined disaster is, such that your threat system sees, "oh, I see, I'm really not going to die or become a social outcast in that situation", and switches off the alarms.
This is a separate motivation system from values-based motivation: the part of your goal you actually want or desire. It won't be affected by turning off the (redundant, cached) threat alarm, except that you'll actually be able to notice it once you're not being distracted by the continual warning bells.
The #1 thing you can do to improve your motivation would be to totally accept the worst-case scenario, as if it has already happened. What is the consequence of failure? Imagine it happening as vividly as you can... NOT as a "what could happen", but as though it has already happened, and there is nothing you can do to "prevent" it. Then, notice what happens next. Where do you go from there? What do you do?
When I try this, it often backfires - I decide that the "worst case" isn't so bad, and then decide not to try to avoid i...
Ok, let's face facts. The Internet has fried my brain. I'm a terrible hedonist and procrastinator. I have a very important test in May -- I am not exaggerating when I say that the outcome of the test matters to the future direction of my life. There are situations where failure is just a temporary setback, and there are situations where failure would be a real problem, and this is the latter. No fooling.
My Problems
1. I don't work enough. My primary distraction is the Internet, though occasionally novels happen too, and I'm capable of just staring into space and daydreaming.
2. I fall asleep during the day. I've tried getting more hours of sleep at night and it doesn't solve the problem. When I'm bored or confused, my body says "Naptime!" It can be quite embarrassing.
3. I often feel too tired/demotivated/bummed to do errands. A lot of stuff, some more important and some less important, slips through my fingers. The most important, to my quality of life, are buying necessities and cleaning my room -- I tend to put these off much too long for my own good.
4. I don't have enough measures of how well I'm doing as a student. I get confused by some abstract concepts, and sometimes I don't even notice that I'm confused.
5. I like being happy and entertained better than being stressed and bored and confused. This makes me want to work less. Not proud of this character trait but not sure how I can rewire my preferences.
Planned Solutions So Far
1. Work in a cubicle, with no computer, with a kitchen timer to keep me mindful of how many hours I spend working.
2. Plan out the material I have to learn and the time I have to learn it, and make a kibotzer.com account to see if I'm on track for my goal.
3. Track various measures of productivity (hours worked, concepts learned, problems solved, percent correct) with a Joe's Goals account. Have thresholds that I don't want to drop below.
4. Use Self Control to block all my entertainment internet sites during "working hours" (I'll leave early mornings and/or late nights free.)
5. Accumulate diverse library books relevant to coursework, and various sources of practice problems, and more notebooks and paper than I need; don't let lack of physical resources limit my progress.
6. Set aside a regular occasion for clean-up and errands.
Any other advice?
In particular, I don't know what to do about my sleepiness problem. I'm not a very regular caffeine drinker; I've started to drink Lipton tea, but I don't think I've reached the quantity sufficient to keep me awake yet, at 2-3 cups a day.
Any advice on the psychological front would also be helpful. How to stay motivated. I know what my motivation is (the consequences of failure in my situation are not pleasant) but how to keep focused on the importance of my goal, without spending all my time being miserable and frightened because I'm visualizing the worst-case scenario. I know I can fuel myself on guilt for a short time, but I don't like it much and I don't think it's practical long-term.
Yes, of course I'm aware that adults know how to work to achieve what they want. Somehow I've reached adulthood without really developing all the personal capacities that I should have. It's lousy of me, but this is where I am, and I'm ready to change and willing to take advice.