I've effectively used a variation of this: setting a daily deadline for when all work must be finished, following which I will do something (specifically planned in advance) that I enjoy. It's like being about to go on vacation.
These ideas could both be considered variations on Neil Fiore's concept of the "unschedule", and there are other authors/speakers who've promoted the idea of clearly separating work/non-work days, e.g. Eben Pagan's "Altitude" and "Wake Up Productive" programs.
People have been encouraging me to share my anti-akrasia tricks, but it feels inappropriate to dedicate a top-level post solely to unproven techniques that work for some person and may not work for others, so:
Go ahead and share your anti-akrasia tricks!
Let's make it an open thread where we just share what works and what doesn't, without worrying (yet) about having to explain tricks with deep theories, or designing proper experiments to verify them. However, if you happen to have a theory or a proposed experiment in mind, please share.
Bragging is fine, but please share the failures of your techniques as well – they are just as valuable, if not more.
Note to readers – before you read the comments and try the tricks, keep in mind that the techniques below are not yet
provensupported or explained by proper experiments, and are not yet backed by theory. They may work for their authors, but are not guaranteed to work for you, so try them at your own risk. It would be even better to read the following posts before rushing to try the tricks: