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This book is a massive PITA to get your hands on (in some countries, perhaps it's back in print?), but a life-changer:
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Discipline-10-days-Thinking-Doing...
This game was incredible, compared to whatever had been available up to then, and on top of that it was incredibly addictive. And I fell in to that, hook, line & sinker. Days, weeks, probably months were wasted.
Finally, I realized, just like you did that it wasn't going anywhere, it was just changing bits on a drive. That was the key for me, all my spare time (and some time that probably wasn't spare) went into flipping a few bits.
So I did the right thing, I wiped the game and never played again. Now that's pretty drastic, but one thing that makes dealing with addiction easier is to no longer have access to your drug. So get rid of it, and don't replace it with another drug (or another game, for that matter).
Having an addictive personality is a double-edged sword, it can get you places when your addiction is working for you (for a long time I got a similar kick out of learning how to program and then later out of the actual programming). But it can also totally ruin your life, lack of self control is a real problem.
So help yourself to help yourself and remove the source of your addiction first, then you may have an easier time dealing with the root cause and getting your addictive personality under control.
Best of luck.
Try and find someone who you can talk to about this, ask them to hold back on their instinct to provide advice, ask them just to be there to talk to. Then tell them every week or two how it's going.
Good luck
I'd stop playing 100% if I were in you until I have delivered the project. I would try to drop every bridge that tied me to any game that could distract me (uninstall/delete everything/throw away my subscriptions/accesses/etc). Then make sure I get a good rest. To get a good rest, you need to do some physical exercise, go out move get physically tired. Going for a slow-paced run or a walk helps me think, become mentally more focused on my goals, understand that really matters in my life and what doesn't. The time I wouldn't spend working, I would spend outside even alone wandering, taking long walks. I'll try to keep a very strict schedule, work the same amount of hours every day, eat at the same time, take a walk and get tired at the same time to adjust body, to an optimal circadian cycle (but mind you, I work/assimilate way better in morning hours, might be different for others).
Think of it like going to the marine corps for a couple of weeks until you finish what you're suppose to be doing. THEN and only THEN try to fight this issue using more rational scheme: e.g. play games 3 hours per day. Not more, except for weekends, etc. There's no magic bullet you need to find your own.
I was a huge procrastinator too. I'm not anymore, not in things that matter, but I'm not as strict as I would want to with my schedule either yet. What I see from myself is that failing to prepare is preparing to fail (Benjamin Franklin said the quote IIRC). That's my biggest advice, prepare your environment your body your mind for a fight. Also I like motivational speeches, maybe you should try yourself. I find this one to be extremely good[1], hits the nails on many issues I'd like to overcome, give it a go, might help you too.
Good luck with everything, be strong!
[1] http://www.briantracy.com/catalog/the-miracle-of-selfdiscipl...
For me it was my brain's way of telling me that what I were doing to myself was bad.
I ended up running from the bad business relationship I was in and then I used two years to find my way in life.
Whenever i procastinate I belive it is my brain trying to tell me that what I am doing is not something that is "me". Sometimes I have to do it anyway (paying the bills, going to the dentist) but often it is something where I actually need to do things a little different to find hapiness in what I am doing.
Do I make sense?
Why is gaming more fun than programming? In my opinion, it’s because of 3 reasons:
1. The action-effect feedback cycle is almost instantaneous
2. Your long-term goals are well defined and easy to hold in your active memory(gear, skill spec, kill this boss etc)
3. The connection between those goals and your immediate actions is very clear. If you need 200k DPS to farm act whatever and you are at 180k then you need to find such and such item with such and such specs and the optimal farming route for your level is this one so let’s get this shit done!
A well designed computer game is like a Waterfall project manager’s wet dream. End outcome is very clear(farm level X in Y minutes), the process of getting there is well described(guides, almost all game variables are numerical and their interactions are simple to model), and the acceptance test is obvious(I am farming level X in Y minutes, or I am too slow or I am plain dying and/or not doing enough damage).
I think you need to bring your development process and gaming closer together.
In terms of the feedback loop use tests and todos. If your tests are failing you know you’re not done, if your todos are falling behind, you know you’re not done. Have some automated performance/acceptance tests, I find seeing simulated user behavior being successful as much more satisfying than internal unit stuff. This is likely what you do anyway, so the problem is probably at the long-term level:
Do you have a clear outcome in mind? Do you have a clear path to that outcome? Is what you are doing at a given moment helping you achieve that outcome? Do you have a connection in your mind between delivering your project and achieving your life goals? Is working for yourself really what you want? Will you be happier in 30 days for having written the bit of code you are writing right now?
Try and answer those questions based on what you feel about the question not on whether saying you prefer gaming to programming means you are a good or bad person.
Plan more! Connect your day-to-day coding to your project’s big picture. Make a list of features/tasks that are left to do before a project is ‘done’ and go over it every day before and after you start the day. What did you cross off that day? Where has progress been made? How much work is left over? Does the overall plan need to be adjusted?
Finally, reprogram your view of gaming. Every time you accomplish something in a game write down this: ‘Today I managed to get a 12 win in Hearthstone with a Mage deck. I earned 300 gold, a card pack with a Leroy and some junk in it, and $0. I predict that this will contribute to me earning $0 going forward.’ Money isn’t everything, but it’s not nothing either.
Do the same for programming tasks. Make a note every time you do git commits, for instance. Every little task will STILL be worth $0 immediately, but the end will be different: ‘I wrote the authentication module for my new project, fixing a security issue with token-based auth. I improved the speed at which users get past the login process by 30%(.65 seconds) and it’ll be easy to move the module to a mobile back-end API later on. I predict that this will contribute to me earning $nice_chunk_of_money going forward.’
At the most fundamental level there is one difference between casual gaming and programming: human beings value one of those activities enough to transfer some of their resources to you in exchange for having you help them. The other one makes it obvious when you level up.
Source: this is how I got through college and got myself to actually improve and use my programming skills. Good luck.
Eventually I found that the only solution for me was quitting entirely and only playing games that have a low level of commitment (like Angry Birds or 2048). The quitting itself is quite hard (I ended up deleting my accounts to prevent me from being able to go back). But now I feel really good about it.
As a bonus, without the fast-paced rewards system of games to distort my perception, programming is just as fun as videogames were... Oh, and I get money for programming, so that's pretty cool.