The key is not to let yourself become distracted with anything
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.:
The trick is in the meaning of the word "just". When somebody says "just do it", they are trying to communicate that you should not do anything else. It might better be phrased as, "Only do it, without thinking about anything, not even about what you're doing. In fact, don't even do it, just watch yourself doing it, but don't actually try to do anything."
(Ironically, I myself got this in 2006 but didn't connect it to the bigger picture until recent discussions here.)
In essence, we can assume that the key to seizing control is to clear any "current state" out of the machinery, either by restricting external stimuli or simply refusing to follow up on distracting thoughts that arise, until the desired internal state is achieved.
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: