"Gamification". And get me right here: not dumbifying.

I used to depend on the pomodoro technique and a other hacks like "autofocus" etc.

Basically techniques that allow you to set targets that you can easily and provably reach even if that target is just work-on-this-and-nothing-else-for-x-minutes-and-make-a-check.

Edit: and deadlines. Maybe another reason why the pomodoro technique works so well.