At the risk of being accused of "cheating", I recommend attention medication. I am very smart, and did exceptionally well in school, but found myself unable to

At the risk of being accused of "cheating", I recommend attention medication. I am very smart, and did exceptionally well in school, but found myself unable to take even "start small" tasks to completion when not faced with an absolute, completely immutable deadline (and even then, I still handed in papers days late). I tried methods found in books, tried adjusting diet and routine, tried altering workplaces, went as far as trying to do work without an internet connection (!) -- nothing. This had nothing to do with motivation. I believed strongly in open source software, and loved to code small projects, but never finished anything. I enjoyed writing, and tried no less than 5 times to start a blog. I started building electronic circuits like headphone amplifiers but abandoned them halfway through soldering. No matter how much I wanted or tried to get stuff done, it just wouldn't happen. A year and a half ago I started taking Vyvanse, which is essentially a slow-release amphetamine salt compound. Since then, I've completed an excellent and productive internship at Apple, shipped two major releases of Quod Libet (an open-source music library application), and am actually making progress on a sprawling thesis, three things I would never have imagined being able to do before. I've even seen a difference socially (I can have conversations that are important to others but meaningless to me without getting bored) and emotionally (I no longer feel like a failure or a waste of potential). Other people have posted many great suggestions, and by all means, try them. But also talk to a qualified psychiatrist that you trust.