I have the same problem, and as I recently finished a goddamn book (do you know how much work that was? I didn't. Three years. I can't believe I finished it.) I think I can speak to this.
1. add meds help a /lot/ as does the use of caffeine to get me through boring parts. (Caffeine, especially is best used occasionally, I've found; if I use it every day, I begin to require it for 'baseline' performance) Usually for me it has been caffeine /or/ add meds. Both together can be bad.
2. work with other people
Other people can keep you on track, and support the project when you are sagging. also, for me the social pressure to not be a drag on the team helps me push towards completion.
3. start a lot of projects.
yeah, the last sounds counterintuitive; but I find that I finish about 40% of what I start; and this correlates almost not at all with my total workload.
4. hang in there and keep trying. it gets easier to finish as you get older. when I was young, I finished maybe 5-10% of what I started.
5. setup your life so that your successes pay for your failures. For me, being a SysAdmin worked very well, as as long as shit runs, nobody is too mad at you for not finishing the awesome management system you had planned, and when shit is broken, it's an emergency, and I don't know about you, but I seem to do pretty well at dealing with emergencies (Obviously, much like caffeine, it can't be an emergency every day.)
Accept now that nobody else is going to be very understanding about this. working for other people will always be a rollercoaster of being hot shit when you finish your projects, and dogshit when you don't.
For this reason, I suggest working for yourself. If you can set yourself up as a product business rather than one that sells your hours, you will be more successful and feel better about yourself. I've managed to do that myself with prgmr.com; As long as I get it right often enough, and my failures are unfinished projects rather than production fuckups, everyone is pretty happy with me, because the unfinished projects were, well, mine. nobody was paying me for that.
1. add meds help a /lot/ as does the use of caffeine to get me through boring parts. (Caffeine, especially is best used occasionally, I've found; if I use it every day, I begin to require it for 'baseline' performance) Usually for me it has been caffeine /or/ add meds. Both together can be bad.
2. work with other people
Other people can keep you on track, and support the project when you are sagging. also, for me the social pressure to not be a drag on the team helps me push towards completion.
3. start a lot of projects.
yeah, the last sounds counterintuitive; but I find that I finish about 40% of what I start; and this correlates almost not at all with my total workload.
4. hang in there and keep trying. it gets easier to finish as you get older. when I was young, I finished maybe 5-10% of what I started.
5. setup your life so that your successes pay for your failures. For me, being a SysAdmin worked very well, as as long as shit runs, nobody is too mad at you for not finishing the awesome management system you had planned, and when shit is broken, it's an emergency, and I don't know about you, but I seem to do pretty well at dealing with emergencies (Obviously, much like caffeine, it can't be an emergency every day.)
Accept now that nobody else is going to be very understanding about this. working for other people will always be a rollercoaster of being hot shit when you finish your projects, and dogshit when you don't.
For this reason, I suggest working for yourself. If you can set yourself up as a product business rather than one that sells your hours, you will be more successful and feel better about yourself. I've managed to do that myself with prgmr.com; As long as I get it right often enough, and my failures are unfinished projects rather than production fuckups, everyone is pretty happy with me, because the unfinished projects were, well, mine. nobody was paying me for that.