A really easy way is to tell yourself that you'll write only one line of code. Go ahead and do that. Or that you'll do just one pushup or only one line of your blog... It works wonders.
This seems related to the smart/hard work attitude. If you think you solve problems because you are smart, then come across a problem that seems too difficult you are more likely to give up than if you think you solve problems by working through them. You can't just make yourself smarter but you can work harder.
Along the same lines, I think I have some control over procrastinating. Not so much over being lazy.
for me, the key in this is to mean it. i.e. to really let yourself stop after the first line if you want to. 90% of the time you'll do much more anyway, but it doesn't work unless you allow yourself to give up after 5 minutes the other 10%.
I have a feeling that procrastination is very personal thing - ie different for different people. For some reason this method works for some programmers. But only for programming tasks.
I'd like to believe that this is because it's something we love to do inherently but we fear the "setup costs" involved in actually doing the task.
I stumbled upon this technique when doing P90X, I would tell myself I would just do the warmup. By the time the warmup was done, was ready to continue the exercise. Worked wonders!
