i feel like the hat man solution would work for me...

Only advice that has ever worked for me is to set micro-goals for the start of tasks.

Like, stupidly easy goals. Got a paper to write? The goal is to open a new document and type 3 words. Need to go work out? Do 1 push up. Need to clean your room? Put one shirt in the laundry hamper, or take 1 dish to the sink.

That's it. Stupidly easy. Not feeling it after that? Cool, you already hit your goal. But momentum is a hell of a thing. The majority of the time, I'll just keep going, precisely because the micro-goals was so easy.

3 words done? Ok that took no time at all. Might as well finish the sentence, maybe even a whole paragraph.

1 push up? I'm already down on the floor, why not do another? Or 10?

I could grab just 1 shirt, or just 1 dish; but I could carry more at the same time. Might as well.

You don't need to trick your brain into doing the whole task, you just need to trick your brain into starting the task. Momentum will take care of the rest. And on the times that it doesn't? Well, again, that's fine. You met your goal already. You don't HAVE to keep going. That can be enough for now.

The "give yourself a treat after" type of advice is pretty shit. I know the guy who hands out the treats, and we're on pretty good terms. I'm pretty sure I can get him to give me a treat without doing the task. Heck I'll probably give myself two treats.

The previous works because you're putting yourself in a state of anxiety and creating adrenaline as a result. Your brain can run on adrenaline instead of dopamine, so it does that. If you learn to cope this way you'll be fucked in old age like me though. In addition to adrenaline, you're filling your body with cortisol and that will destroy you from within. Don't do it. Just go get the damn ADHD medication.

Personally, I find that music can help out. Just as long as you don’t have to listen to something with audio, keeping music on keeps that dopamine flowing

Yeah. Take a snack, blink, ate through half a kilo of cookies.

Very rarely regulatory systems are fucked in one way only.

I'm sorry.

"The hat man"? What in the sleep paralysis demon is that?

I think this is good advice and creating fake urgency is nothing but destructive for many. But then again we're all different and the clock setting techniques may be the perfect fit for many others. The most important thing is that you try things and if you try something that doesn't work, most of the time you can't just try again harder to make it work. That will eventually break you.

When I was a kid I had a hard time slanting my cursive writing. My teacher told me to just slant the paper, so I kept turning it more and more until it was fully sideways, still writing upright because I adjusted to the angle. After days of this my teacher cried “Just write angled letters!” and I went “Oh!” and was able to do it perfectly from then on.

Anyway I guess my point is different stuff works for different people.

I misread this as erectile dysfunction and was super concerned about the solutions.

An old rancher once told me "Always eat your dessert first", and I've lived by that ever since.

I have a jar of dope and a jar of anime girl thighs. Would one of you science wizards help me turn this into dopamine?

Instructions unclear, am fat now.

Ymmv but for those of you who put your clocks ahead (but automatically adjust the tine in your head), try putting them behind. Knowing it's slow may cause a bit more urgency.