Alright Rocket, everyone is different and my advice is both personal and anecdotal but I've been struggling like you for over seven years and recognize myself what you're saying. I also hate the, "just do it" advice that you often get, because it's impossible to "just do it" in the same way it's impossible for a girl without legs to "just start walking". It has nothing to do with having the right attitude, since I've been having nothing but attitude these past years.

I've tried a lot, as I think you have, from pomodoro and reward systems, to meditation and binding promises but as you can guess, nothing has really worked. I've always stayed positive though, kept on going forward and I think I've finally found something. I've been able to study actively for almost one month now and while it may not sound like much, that's around 28 days more than usual. And whats more is that I consider it the first time in years, my whole life that I've actually been studying for real, I realize now that I've never done that before.

With risk of sounding a bit cheesy, I've haven't felt this good in literally ages.

What I did was actually quite simple, I started working with the goal to simply make myself as tired as possible. My goal for these workdays have not been to get things done but to simply work my ass off. It sounds weird, and a bit like bullshit, but I realized that I'm at my best when I'm fully occupied and to do things in moderation doesn't work for me. If your still interested, then these are my tips:

1. Start working non-stop. None of the, "work and reward yourself with relaxation" bullshit, it simply doesn't work and isn't motivating. It only makes you look longingly at the watch, wishing for the pain and struggle of being forced to study to be over.
2. Shift you goal. Like I said, your goal is not to do as much work as you possibly can within the time limit, it's not even to complete any work. No, your goal and aim is to work and study, since that's what you're bad at. If you're suffering from acute stupidity, that's fine, since your goal is to just sit there and become better at studying without interruptions. It sounds a lot like "make small goals" kind of thinking, but it's not. This is not to cheat your brain to make things more "fun" but to change your whole mindset and your view on work itself.
3. Take smart breaks. 50 minutes of work, 10 minutes break, rinse and repeat. I'm addicted to entertainment and I've realized that even if I'm able to get back to work, I'm worse off by surfing the web or watching a series during my time off. No, the best kind of breaks are ones when I'm not thinking but still doing something. So, take your 10 minutes and clean some dishes or tidy up your apartment, but only for 10 minutes. Walk around a bit but whatever you do, don't start doing something "entertaining". "I'll just..." are some the most dangerous words in existence.
4. Be serious about it but lenient. You will have good and bad days, realize that and work with it. The only thing that matters is that you sit down today, no matter how bad things ended up yesterday. You don't need a stopwatch for your breaks but remember that your brain is really good at making you think that you need to relax more than you actually do. If you get sick, you get sick, but you get back to work when you feel alright again.

For the last few days, my schedule have looked something like this:

• 06:00 - 06:30 - Wake up, eat breakfast and take a shower
• 06:30 - 11:30 - Work, with a 10 minute break once every hour
• 11:30 - 12:30 - Lunch, but avoid tv and browsing the web (I'm looking at you, Reddit)
• 12:30 - 16:30 - Work, with a 10 minute break once every hour
• 16:30 - 18:30 - Dinner, do whatever
• 18:30 - 19:30 - One last hour of work

I'm allowed to keep on working after 07:30 pm but I don't have to. But the most amazing thing though, is that I've wanted to keep on going a few times. I've never wanted to keep on studying before.

-_-

I should stop now, I feel that I've written way too much but I leave you with this. What I've done these past few weeks may work for you too, but in the end, the truth is that there is no silver bullet and you cannot count on finding advice that will work perfectly. This whole thing have worked for me but I'm the one who came up with it, in relation to my problems and my way of doing things. The most important thing is to never stop going forward and keep on trying new things. Don't listen blindly to what you should do or even how you should think about things. I've realized that work can, in the right circumstances, be fun and when I go to bed, having worked myself tired, I'm happy and feel awed over the fact that I've actually worked.