What is it in your field that really makes you jump up and down with joy and amazement? I sometimes have similar problems (though by far not as bad) and what w

What is it in your field that really makes you jump up and down with joy and amazement? I sometimes have similar problems (though by far not as bad) and what works for me is to leave a straightforward problem lying on the desk so it's the first thing I see in the morning. Additionally, there's a (very short) list with achievable things I want to do that day. (A lot less than I could do, more a 'at least this far' list.) When I get bored with one task there's usually another one on the list that's ok. And not all textbooks are equally boring. Oh, and deadlines [1]. I don't always follow this, but when I do, I get some stuff done and it's quite satisfying, even though it's just the 'minimal stuff list'. When you say intense focus, I rather think of short activities like sword training (wonderful state of mind!) or a few minutes of coding the 'heart' of a short program, not longer periods of work. </rant> [1]http://rcrosing.home.xs4all.nl/calhob.html http://rcrosing.home.xs4all.nl/calhob.html edit: You might also wanna check Lesswrong, they have a lot of ideas about these problems: http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Akrasia http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Akrasia