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 proven supported 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:
Tried at least once when I had something important to do:
Go to the bathroom, stare at the wall and don't let anythig distract you until you muster the willpower to start the task you are procrastinating on. Then go and do it.
The key is not to let yourself become distracted with anything, that's why I went to the bathroom and stared at the wall(yes, my face was literally one inch away from it), any tactic with the same effect should work also.
I find it very interesting that so many of these methods sound like varying paths to monoidealism - i.e., the hidden meaning of "just do it", i.e.:
... (read more)