Hi,

I deal with a lot of motivation issues surrounding school as well.

This post reminds me of a song called Closer to Fine by the Indigo Girls. In it there's a line that goes "I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper and I was free." Pretty much describes my school experience perfectly. I find with a lot of the work that I don't want to do, rewarding myself during/after I do it works really well. For instance, I will buy myself a chocolate bar to eat while I do a reading, or I'll take a nice walk or treat myself to a movie when I finish an essay. Focussing on the rewards helps take my mind of the blistering boredom of the actual work. What also helps is breaking things down into small steps. If I have several pieces of work to do, I'll read one chapter here, write one paragraph there, research a particular concept after that ... Sometimes I find I'm more productive if I don't spend all my time focussing on the same thing. Switching it up periodically gives me the second wind I need to keep working.

Hope that helps.