Those help but the thing that helps me most is to actively engage my rational brain instead of autopilot brain. Try to make it a habit to trigger your rational brain when your autopilot brain is making the decision to procrastinate, and then analyze the situation. OK, I have a choice between browsing news sites and working on the VPTree. What are the pros and cons of each choice? Could I delay browsing news sites by 10 minutes and look into that VPTree first?