Also, trying harder is not what you should be doing anyway. Trying harder will only be exhausting and frustrating for you, and from there you will go into a downward spiral - exactly the opposite of your desired outcome.

instead, you need to be analytical. You have identified a bottleneck - the references. Stop here, put the application you have been working on on hold, and create a file (a spreadsheet), or send an email to yourself, titled "references". Slowly fill it out - list your former managers, coworkers, and personal friends. Find and record all possible data that might be requested - the references' email addresses, phone numbers, current titles, titles at the time you worked together, length of the relationship, and whether they supervised you. Throw in LinkedIn profiles if you can find them. Make your file an exhaustive super-set, meaning that it should contain all the info that might possibly be needed, and then some. This way when you fill out future applications (and the one you put on hold), you will just breeze through the references section without stumbling upon it ever.

if that sounds daunting, that is ok. Start your spreadsheet and prepare the column headings - phone #, email address, etc. Call it a day and be happy that you have made progress. Tomorrow, enter the names of each reference as a row. Likewise, be satisfied that you have made a dent. The day after tomorrow, fill out a few columns (the phone number for each reference) or rows (take just one or two references and fill out each cell for them). By the end of the week, your file will be done. Then you will proceed to next steps (actually applying).