I can tell you what works for me, and has for years. There's an old saying that goes "Once begun, the job's nearly done" - STARTING the project is the hardest

I can tell you what works for me, and has for years. There's an old saying that goes "Once begun, the job's nearly done" - STARTING the project is the hardest part. So I use an egg timer or if I'm working with my headphones on the PC, I use Orzeszek Timer (it's free) - but the idea is I set it for 15 minutes or 20 minutes or 30 minutes (whatever amount I want to make sure I work on a task) and then remind myself that starting is the hardest part, and that all I have to do is work until the timer goes off, and I can quit. The reality is that normally once we actually start working, we stick with it for a while, but I believe the timer allows us to 'check out' and just focus on work. See, when we are working, there are a million things going on in our heads, reminders, deadlines, things on the internet we want to look at, but with a timer and an understanding that the timer will remind us when we can quit, we can just focus on working.