Wow, a lot of genuinely useful advice here, thanks a lot guys! I am not surprised that I got more helpful responses from GameDev than from all the addiction and mental health and self help forums I've ever posted on combined. I appreciate the well thought out responses that actually address my issues specifically, I was getting very tired of hearing the same cliche's over and over again from people who just read my post, get an idea of what it's about, and post whatever related unthoughtful/unoriginal cliche's and sayings that I've already heard hundreds of times. I had a feeling this would be a good place to get original and REAL advice even on such an unrelated topic :). Man I was getting tired of people trying to help me by telling me NA will solve all my problems, or that I need to 'work towards my goals'(Gee why didn't I think of doing that before!). Okay I'm done being bitter, it's just really refreshing to feel like I'm getting real advice from real people, thanks a lot guys that in itself is helpful :D.

I'm going to post back later with specific responses and more info but I really appreciate the help everyone, especially those who took the time to PM me I received some great advice there as well and am going to message you back later as well. I have a ton of phone calls to make and some procrastinating to do(I earned it I actually got a lot done today :p)

Thanks again everyone :)

There've been some good responses already, but I think there's one thing that's gone unmentioned. There are plenty of little tricks you can come up with to force yourself to work, but I think the most important thing you can do is sit down and define why you're doing what you're doing. You need something to remind yourself of, when you're about to delay writing the Next Great Mobile Game to watch some cat videos. Take advantage of your weaknesses. How would you trick yourself into working if you were someone else?

As an example, here's what I do. I'm a very competitive, agitated, narcissistic person. Instead of changing this, I acknowledge it and use it as a weapon against myself. I used to have a severe problem with finishing projects, until one day I read an interview of some successful CEO. May've been Bill Gates. In the interview, the guy indicated that he thought that people who didn't finish projects just weren't smart. That it takes a certain IQ level to have the motivation and drive to see things through to the end on your own. I have a relatively low IQ (especially compared to most engineers), so I took offense. To this day, whenever I'm about to sway on a project, I remind myself that successful people will look at me and say it's because I'm stupid, and I go back at it with more fire than when I started.

You might be a nicer, more caring person. Maybe you get super excited to do stuff when you know some specific person will really appreciate it. Write games for specific people you love, then. Or look into research that shows how games can help people in tough times. It'll give you a reason to wake up before your alarm clock and start coding. My thing is anger, yours might be compassion, someone else's might be greed. But I find this is the best remedy. Figure out who you are and use that knowledge like a weapon against laziness.

May've been Bill Gates. In the interview, the guy indicated that he thought that people who didn't finish projects just weren't smart. That it takes a certain IQ level to have the motivation and drive to see things through to the end on your own. I have a relatively low IQ (especially compared to most engineers), so I took offense. To this day, whenever I'm about to sway on a project, I remind myself that successful people will look at me and say it's because I'm stupid, and I go back at it with more fire than when I started.

I don't think this is necessarily true. Many dried out personal projects for me have been caused by that I have solved all technical challenges and only have more of the same to look forward to. That is, solving similar problems I've already solved, and in the case of game making that means endless tweaking and content production - something I just don't enjoy, as it seems. Ultimately though, the potential accuracy of this statement depends on whether this was this guy's personal opinion or whether he had some scientific backing up - I can only speculate.

However, I definitely agree on that it's crucial finding some way of motivating yourself and if that works for you, then you should keep thinking that.

Here's a link I find really... hmm... clarifying? I need to practice my english.

Anyway, here you go: http://makegames.tumblr.com/post/1136623767/finishing-a-game

I have studied game dev on my own for a long time now, and I had long plateaus where I did not advance on any direction whatsoever, until I found something specific to study and learn. It usually happened when I tried to do something that was way over my head or kept on doing what I already knew.

Today, I focus on finishing stuff, finishing my small projects, going from start to finish.

The simple fact that you go through the entire thing makes you learn a lot more than simply making two "half-games" or several prototypes; that's my experience.

So, design a game and try to program it. From here, there are only two possibilities:

1 - You'll be able to program it from ground up with no problem; or

2 - You'll face a problem, a new obstacle, something you did not know how to solve.

If you manage to finish it, good! Think of a bigger, more complex and maybe more ambitious project and do that again.

If you then get to that obstacle, you'll need to overcome it, create or find a good solution and finish your game.

If you think the problem is too difficult for you to solve right now, step back and archive your project temporarily. Create a simpler project and do the same. On the future, when you have thought of a solution, get back to this archived project and finish it!

Again, if you missed it, this is a link that everyone who, like me, has difficulties in finishing projects should read.

http://makegames.tumblr.com/post/1136623767/finishing-a-game