Thanks for the reply. I've tried just about any productivity technique except for Beeminder, which I'm fairly sure just isn't the right tool for me for a number of (financial as well as psychological) reasons. I've read The Willpower Instinct and a few other books on the topic. I'm currently looking into nootropics and neurochemistry as a last resort, more precisely dopaminergics, more precisely selegiline (I seem to fit the profile of someone who's generally low on dopamine, but I don't know for sure); modafinil too, for focus reasons.

The results have led me to think that I have positively affected plenty of areas of my life, except for the one I originally set out to improve, i.e. studying. Maybe I'm doing that wrong; maybe copying down entire textbooks is tedious as well as disheartening.

How does your case sound like?