Autism

Heres my process: Eat something, do one thing I do want / can motivate myself to do, and then DON'T SIT DOWN! If you need a drink mid, drink standing up. If all else fails, play boppy af music, and imagine you're in one of those movies where the cut scene shows a dance / song sequence, involving them just going about their everyday, but with dance, then go about whatever you can motivate yourself to do, but with flourish. Bonus points if you sing your own lyrics about your feels. Or just sing what you're doing, and let whatever lyrics fall out of your head, naturally, after that. It's actually pretty fun.

Intentionally start spiraling to have a panic attack to get me off my ass to do the thing.

Literally just start smacking myself in the face until I do the thing

Uh yeah, I was once far less mentally well than I currently am…

Embrace your hyper-fixation, leverage it to compete tasks while keeping a plan of attack for the day. Compete only what must be completed, leave the rest.

1. Snort some meth.
2. Put on a kinky BDSM outfit.
3. Do the dishes while masturbating.

get really really really baked

I start by cleaning. Which can be a hard thing to start. I just break it down to as many small tasks as I can. Once I have an ordered, clean space, it's easier to do whatever I need to do

Start a more important task so you can neglect that and work on the other things you were supposed to do. A sacrificial task, if you will.

PTSD.

I turn on the bathroom exhaust fan. HVAC going is good. When HVAC gets shut down things are about to go to shit.

Unhinged? I tell myself “I don’t need motivation” and then just do the thing, people at least act like this is unhinged when I tell them it works, it’s literally just CBT in action

Watch a show with confident and or flat out deranged (but still motivated/functional) characters.

Wait for code-switching or whatever it is to kick in so you can easily start thinking and acting like said character.

Do the action the way you think they would.

You might have executive dysfunction but Hannibal Lecter sure doesn’t. (Bad example but I’ll leave it because it’s funny)

No joke I would do this to write essays in high school. It made my scores go up if I decided I would write the essay as though I was Cave Johnson

For completing household tasks, I’d recommend deranged characters like from Hazbin Hotel

For completing tasks that might make you anxious, I highly recommend someone who would be bored doing the task but still do it, so go watch The Witcher and then say under your breath “fuck” before doing the now more tedious than anxious task lol

I also really do recommend you choose humorously chaotic or satirical characters for most boring/tedious tasks btw because it makes life so much more entertaining to imagine their commentary about the action or your life in general.

Imagining that a character is talking to you (rather than… possessing you… being played by you?) can also be fun, like hearing Johnny Silverhand give you patronizing and cuss-word riddled but still somewhat motivating pep talk for going outside or writing an email lol

Mindfulness meditation and strength training. Both of these things together do not get enough credit for how they complement and enhance each other.

Brain wants to shut down and not execute? Well let's make a motherfucking day of it then, no more voluntary muscle control, I'll let this bitch flop and slither right off the sofa til we bang our head on the coffee table.

Usually shocks the system back into action for a minute, during which I am de Captain now.

For a quick focus jolt, a snack size slim jim from the "slim jim chute", as i like to call it, and a shot glass of redbull.

My office (work from home) has a very narrow laundry chute we dont use, so I placed a 2x4 in it to cover the chute. Now it stores a box of slim jims and a cheap jelly fish speaker.

Drink a lot of water and get up because you really need to pee

Newton's first law of motion. Body in motion remains in motion
So cant get stuck if i never sit down, keep on moving. Start in the morning and drop dead in the evening, never sit down too long in the meanwhile.

Though yeah probably not that helpful in getting into motion again once stuck. Body in rest remains at rest

Warning: not the healthiest approach

Sit perfectly still and actively refuse to engage with any tempting distractions until you give up out of boredom and do the thing you need to do

I pretend I’m two hours away from having to be at the airport to take a flight and I haven’t even started packing. Once I’m in that mindset, all the fog lifts, and I can see clearly. Every task is done to completion. I remember where I put (almost) everything. It feels like I’m flying.

Im putting this as unhinged advice cause it is kinda unhinged but like those sigma male motivation videos sometimes work. I dont mean the "beat your wife" kind but there are ones that have compilations of professional athletes and whatever. Like why it works, i dont subscribe to all of the alpha male stuff but watching a 300lbs man pull an airplane with a chain while some inexcusable techno/hardstyle plays helps sometimes. Also get up, get your blood pumping and get ready like youre about to do a similal feat, and instead clean your home or whatever your goal was.

I knowingly pick a new side project / fascination to focus on. I'm always forcing myself not to pickup side projects so I can actually finish something, but when struggling to motivate myself at all to get unstuck, I engage in the guilty pleasure of a new sideproject for a day or so to get going.

Ok so have you seen the Dropout show Dimension 20? The Mentopolis season has a character (played by Hank Green) called The Fix, whose job is to go around this 1930s-coded brain city and literally mob-enforcer style "take care of" distractions.

So I just chat with my The Fix in my head. It is starting to work a bit more all the time.