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lukeprog comments on My Algorithm for Beating Procrastination - Less Wrong
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None of this kind of shit ever works for me, because it seems to assume I'm a bright-eyed go-getter at heart, blundering about and playing video games when I know I should be writing my dissertation, and oh, if only there were an equation made of words that would show me the problem with my motivation pathways. (And if only the post title would change three times so it shows up thrice in my RSS feeds!)
Instead, it's more of an all-pervasive apathy that seems to go all the way to my terminal goals. I think "what do I really want to be doing right now? where do I want to be at the end of the day, or the end of the year?" and there's just nothing there.
HEY, I HAVE AN IDEA! LET'S SEE HOW MANY STAMPS WE CAN LICK IN AN HOUR, AND THEN TRY AND BEAT THAT RECORD!!1
Sounds to me like every task has low value for you. And given your description, I doubt the next best thing for you to do is to apply gamification or drink more water for energy. Your problem sounds like a particularly apathetic (rather than despairing) form of depression. Alas, I'm not well-informed on that topic. Can anyone else point Postal_Scale to useful resources?
The best way to rule out clinical depression is to inquire whether the apathy merely affects the capacity for looking forward to goal attainment or whether it extends to ongoing activities, so it becomes a pervasive deficit in pleasure ("anhedonia"). I wouldn't conclude there's a depression just from the information provided.