How do you convince yourself to do things you want to do?

Usually I get bored and that results in wanting to do something different. Boredom is the fix you are looking for!

This is different for everyone, I personally like

• creating a ToDo-list with all the stuff you want to do (even small/easy stuff, for motivation) and then deleting or marking as done the things you accomplish
• setting recurring reminders in a calender-app or something like that, so you don't forget
• creating lists with the "progress" you made, like a list of watched movies, played games, read books etc.

Also, remember to relax and don't focus TOO much on getting stuff done all the time :)

Always, I can't do much unless I'm forced to due to obligations or having duties I've been given (work, volunteer task, etc).
Personally, the only thing I can do is just psych myself into doing it, like "just fucking go".

Otherwise, when I'm not doing anything productive, I go around trying everything until I find something I like, then once passion takes over laziness, I'm happy again doing something productive in my free time. For example, I've recently started messing around some Python stuff (Ren'Py) and I feel productive and happy due to that. I feel much more happy doing something I greatly enjoy for the time being than "forcing" myself into things I dislike - I'd rather just do nothing over things I don't want to/feel no interest in at the moment.

Now, personal matters aside, what I can suggest that I don't do but might help, try setting yourself a schedule. Once you know what you need/want to do, build a schedule around it and ensure you're both able to fulfill your necessities, tasks, and give yourself some free time and a lot of breaks in between (you don't want to discourage yourself from following your schedule, make it simple at first).

If you're having difficulty following your schedule, reduce the number of tasks/events, and try to focus on one thing in particular, such as "take a walk every day at 3pm". You can also loosen the schedule time a bit like "take a walk in the afternoon everyday", but I'd avoid it since it might lead in procrastinating until the last minute, then eventually just giving up. If the schedule says 3pm and it's 3:30pm, you'll feel a greater urgency to complete this task as soon as possible.

I've used that trick for a while, and it worked fine but I found out I prefer, as mentioned above, to do things I like at my own speed rather than force myself into things I don't want to do. It's not a good thing, mind you, since I lack some things in my life like going outside more.

I was having a similiar problem and found something called "5 second rule" by Mel Robbins. She has a book but it isn't available in Turkish so haven't read it. It's pretty simple and helped me a lot especially to start workout in the mornings. Here is a video about it give it a try maybe it will work for you too;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI2VQ-ZsNr0

This worked just as a starter for me and forging habits is not easy. Good luck.

I'm trying to work together now. Me and my mate chose time for coop and start work together. Each have own work but we talk to each other than somebody finish any kind of work or any other things. The idea is stimulate each other by success of your partner and let partner (and you) find where and when time waste too much. Negative side is risk to slow down faster participater but positive is extra training of "mind".
Well, I just finished my procrastination pause and go back to work. Good luck to you too! Let me know about results please if you tried this too.

Pretty much what others say.

Think about how you feel once you do those things and force yourself to first step

it's not easy. I usually don't do things unless I have to or if me not doing the thing could negatively affect someone else. Someone lend me a book and for two months I haven't read more than a few pages of it. I only work and rest. I often go out with friends because it's fun.
I think if you do something with someone else you get a bit more motivated, though it's not always possible to find the right person.

Ah get that alot myself and letting boredom take control is bad. If i get bored you know im going to be complaining but at the same time not do anything because nothing is good enough. In my current state ive been getting it alot everyday lately so im just slowly forcing myaelf to do little things in between breaks of my videos

I was just like that. Unable to do anything unless it including having fun. I became attached to many bad things, things that made me worse, made me more lazy than I ever was. What fixed my habits was work. I started working, learnt what hard-work was and how to achieve things I wanted, how to overcome obstacles and how to be a good person. In the end, I was able to things I wasn't able to before. I grew up to the state where doing something fun wasn't something I needed in order to kill my boredom. Hard-work and desire to become better fixed me. Maybe it will help you too.

I work as a waiter currently. Seeing people unable to do anything besides killing themselves from overwork changed my way of thinking. I did enough studying to enroll in the only university in my country that teaches Robotics by taking top scores and now I know I have a future; I have willpower and I have my own pocket money for things I want to enjoy. I have no regrets and I never think of "what if". Things I overcame made me what I am and I am proud of it.

I want to read a book, go outside, call a friend,

Read the book to your friend while outside; three birds with one stone. ☺

I normally have a problem doing things I don't want to do but need to, doing the things I want to do comes easy.

But if you're in a rut where you just don't feel like doing anything, and you're not doing things you enjoy because you're just feeling lazy, what helps me is to remember how much you enjoy those things and use your will power to get you to do them.

I've had times where I didn't feel like going for a bike ride because that requires changing, getting my bike, driving to a trail, etc, and that just seems like so much work. But I had to remind myself that I absolutely love mountain biking, and that I should just do it because I'm going to be glad I did afterwards. And each time I went for a bike ride, I was really glad I did because I loved it and it was way better than sitting around at home.

I start with small stuff and it snowballs from that. If I want to go out somewhere, but too lazy to plan something. I just text a friend "what's up" and we shortly decide to go out for a coffee. After coffee I snowball again. For example text another friend and at the end of the it its 12Am and I spend the whole evening with friends.

Here is a method that worked for me: I wrote a list of all the things I wanted to do (pleasant or unpleasant).
Then, I added them to a "decision roulette" and turned it.
It was fun to let the fate decide. Then, I did the thing the roulette told me and turned it again and so on.
I think it may work for you, especially if the things that are hard for you to do are "pleasant" things (like reading a book, etc.).
It is kind of a "trigger".

Man I understad you, I have the same problem and it is frequent. When this happen to me I usually slap my own face or pinch my arm until I wake up from the bed, then I throw away my cellphone and start doing the stuff that I want as fast as I can. Usually when I start something I finish it,so it works for me.

First of all, don't hate yourself. Even if you're not doing the best, you don't deserve any hate.

And you did go to SG and posted something, so obviously you can get yourself to do something, and that's good.

Personally I find it easier to motivate myself to do things for others than to do things for myself.

What do you do when you don't do anything? Are you just thinking about bad things? Maybe you could try working while you rest, trying to think of solving some problem, creating something new, ...

(I'm lazy but I haven't faced such a problem, so I'm not sure how I'd try to get out of it. I wish for you that you get out of it quickly.)

im on the current position like u as well

Similar problem, sometimes its hard to get yourself motivated.

Don't think too much about all of the things you want to do. It can become overwhelming and being lazy is a lot easier than not being lazy. Thinking about the big to-do list is stressful, and being like a sloth reduces that stress. :)

So, just try to do a small bit. Dedicate 15 or 20 minutes each day to something "productive" from your to-do list. You don't need to read the whole book in one sitting, you know, just a little bit at a time. That's why bookmarks exist. :P

After that 15 or 20 minutes maybe you'll feel like continuing for longer, who knows?

I apply that method to things I don't want to do, like cleaning the house or pulling weeds in the garden etc. but it can be good to slice it into bite-sized pieces.

Another method is to get a calendar and write on each day (or weekend, whatever your schedule is) what task you would like to work on that day. This way things are not left so open-ended and you're less likely to make a bad decision. (same thing can work for planning meals if you are trying to eat more healthy.)

Changing your environment might help. I can never read or study at home, but I can in a cafe. There are too many distractions at home - comfortable bed, food, TV, games...

I have the same problem. Have been trying to learn digital painting, japanese, reading up on coding, reading some fiction books (i bought years ago).
But I seem to only do them for 1hr or so and stop, then go back to lying in my bed either using my phone or sleeping.
I really want to follow through but am having troubles doing so.

In some sense, I feel it might be because I am dreading school and afraid that if I commit to those things it might cause me to burnout before school start and I flunk my studies. It has always been a problem (I took a 1 year break from school and still couldn't get down to it because I keep thinking I should just rest up (and so I lie in bed whole day, doing essentially nothing productive) before school starts). So for now, I just try not to think about it (since it is my last year of studies) and hope that after finishing school I would get down to do things I like.

PS: I am still afraid that when school ends and work starts, work would replace school and I would fall back into the pit though. I feel like I am perpetually stressed even though things I do shouldn't be so stressful, probably cause I constantly feel like I am not doing enough and feel I should do more but needing to do more things make me not want to do anything because there is too much to handle.
Maybe you are feeling something like that too. I feel the way to get out of this feeling and start doing stuff is to have a long term goal in mind that you thought through carefully and try not to compare/care about what your peers are doing. (I am not there yet though, but also hoping I can get there)

Depression sucks ass... I won't lie. It is a vicious cycle that robs us of any interest, motivation and productivity. It enables us to stay stuck in our heads which exacerbates our self pity. I know it takes effort (sometimes a lot of effort) but you are better off forcing yourself to do something that occupies your time so you aren't focusing on your melancholy. Life, like love, is an action word. Everything in nature is constantly in motion - and it will find a way to force you out of your self imposed stagnation whether you want it to or not.

Hang in there. If you make the effort, it does get better!

I don't...

I'm not gonna recommend what I used to do because I basically scared the shit out of myself through media (like "I don't wanna be Pink from The Wall"/"I am partially Bojack, what can I do to not live a life of complete misery?"/"I am Shinji, what can I do now to not end up as a mentally broken wreck in the future?"). It vaguely worked but that was definitely toxic and exhausting motivation

What I would recommend is celebrating the little steps! I don't know how bad your mental state really is, but if you manage to do something, anything that you thought was out of your scope for the day, reward yourself! Because by making any sort of progress in such a hard journey you certainly deserve a reward. Also, try not hating yourself when things get too tough and you can't force yourself to anything yet again. It's ok to fall back a bit, there's a bunch of time to make it up after all. If that feeling of incapability lasts too long however, try to open up to someone close to you or if your finances allow that to go to therapy. You've got this! ♥

Hope you don't mind linking a Bojack clip