Self motivation is an art. It's something everyone everywhere has had to learn, so don't feel down because you are struggling with it. As with all abilities, some people are naturals, some have to learn it. My personal opinion is that, as with most abilities, the "naturals" are just people who learned self motivation at a very young age. You have to learn it, as did I, and as did many more people than you can imagine.
Take it as a personal project to manipulate yourself. This is the trick. You want to have your reptilian brain under control, and the problem is that the reptilian has lots of power. There are a number of strategies, try and try again until you find one that fits. For me, the one that really worked is delayed gratification as a reward for small accomplishments. Trivial stuff, such as "I can break for coffee once I fix that small annoying bug that is just boring to fix". Frequent, delayed rewards.
Anyhow, talk about it. You'll find most people go through the same problem. Virtually everyone goes through phases of procrastination, and you'll find everyone has invented their own method of snapping out of it.
I personally think that, if you're lacking in motivation to do something but you realize it's something that needs to be done, you're lacking in self-discipline. Instead of waiting or hoping for motivation, you need to be disciplined and /do it/. Start with sleeping discipline: go to bed at 11 sharp, get up at 7 sharp, and stick with it. Excercise disipline: force yourself to go for a run every night, whether you feel up to it or not. That kinda thing.
With procrastination, the general advice is to force yourself to sit down and do something that needs to be done for five minutes. Surely you can do five minutes, right? Then reward with an instant-gratification thing. The general advice is to do 30 minutes, but I'd go down to just one minute or something if it's really bad.
Ask for help / monitoring, too. My brother had serious procrastination / concentration issues when he had to finish one of his last assignments. I was asked to help him out; I just asked him where he was, what needed to be doing, and er. Well, I just sat and read something while he worked.
So, self-discipline, and a friend to help you keep focused on the task at hand. Ask him to shock you if you reach out for distraction or something.
I have a more generic view. Lack of motivation can be caused by a number of factors, so the solution is different in each case. You are both right and wrong. In many cases, the "just start and then keep at it" method works. In many others it doesn't.
One clear example of the one-size-fits-all failing is explicit in your discipline of go to bed at 11 sharp get up at 7 sharp. It is known to only work for morning people. I tried exactly that, and for me it leads to slow unproductive mornings. Move the bedtime schedule to 3AM or 4AM and suddenly I get four or five great work hours in the night (way better than the equivalent hours in the morning).
It depends on how you're wired, and my point is that learning how each person is wired is a personal project, through trial and error. Erring is OK.
I like this explanation the best, primarily the first few sentences. Motivating yourself is really as unique as you are, and as stated, if you're not naturally gifted at it, it takes significant trial and error to work at.
For me, my primary limiting factor is that I tend to burn out easily. Currently, I plan a couple or a few days a week that will be "productive days" where I run errands, tidy things up around my apartment, and generally tie up loose ends (bills, finance, make appointments, etc.). I used to work on trying to spread it out more evenly through the week, but I found the quality of my work really decreases the longer that I try and keep up the pace. I need a day, or two, or even longer sometimes to get back in the "productive mood".
I know these things, and being aware of them helps me plan accordingly, and set realistic goals. I've been doing this since college, and the quality of my work has really improved, because I tend to work best when I want to, and relax best when I need to. These cycles come about naturally, and I try to exploit them.
Everyone is different. And the important thing is to constantly try and improve, even in little ways, at even a seemingly glacial pace. Small goals for me snowball into larger ones. But it's all about really coming to know yourself.
Take it as a personal project to manipulate yourself. This is the trick. You want to have your reptilian brain under control, and the problem is that the reptilian has lots of power. There are a number of strategies, try and try again until you find one that fits. For me, the one that really worked is delayed gratification as a reward for small accomplishments. Trivial stuff, such as "I can break for coffee once I fix that small annoying bug that is just boring to fix". Frequent, delayed rewards.
Anyhow, talk about it. You'll find most people go through the same problem. Virtually everyone goes through phases of procrastination, and you'll find everyone has invented their own method of snapping out of it.