this reminded me of a reward system I used for myself as a kid and do still sometimes use to get through some boring onerous task that requires attention. I'll get a bag of nuts (small bag, not going for breaking the scale) or a small number of something else I think is yummy. Break the task up into what I think are manageable 'mental bites' (2 problems, 6 lines of an essay, etc.) and after my prescribed amount of work is completed, I get to have a little bite of whatever.
I am sure this is not going to work for everyone, and I guess there could be concerns about setting up bad eating habits, but I dunno, for me it just seemed to work.
And yes, I am only a few pounds overweight.
I am curious if there are other micro-rewards like this that folks use; cigarettes come to mind, but that of course is verboten. I guess the mention of listening to music is like that for some people?
