Set small goals for yourself that have a visible or measurable impact. Each time you complete one, you'll feel a sense of reward. The important thing is to work

Set small goals for yourself that have a visible or measurable impact. Each time you complete one, you'll feel a sense of reward. The important thing is to work with your psychology not fight it. What I've found to be effective is to have a list of goals roughly by week, for the next few months, and then each week to assign myself a small list of tasks for each day. I also try to mix up the type of tasks over each day -- some are fun and I'm excited to do them, some are more tedious but have to be done. So when I do some tedious work I reward myself with the fun tasks. When I fail to meet my goals I allow myself to get angry with myself -- almost a disappointed self-hatred. But only for a few minutes, and then I move on. Perhaps some people will disagree with this technique, and might suggest only positive self-reenforcement, but if you're not totally honest with yourself it's going to be tough to keep yourself on track. Whatever you do, you should definitely start by examining your goals and motivations for working on your project, since everything entirely depends on these.