How to be more productive
I can really relate to a lot of this. I'm a graduate student with ~10 distinct projects/ideas on my todo list and at any point in time I feel more or less inclined to work on each of them. And strangely, the most important ones are rarely on top, maybe because they are both assigned and daunting.My work life comes down to a mental battle and trying to induce motivation in myself because I know that when I am in my motivated state working on something I can be significantly more efficient than when I'm not, perhaps even  by an order of magnitude. I've sat down to work on a paper one day having decided it is fun after explaining it to a friend and did a weeks worth of work that evening until 2am.I have to figure out what induces these mysterious states.