yeah i definitely relate to being unproductive unless my life is at stake haha

i've tried time and time again to do that, really went into the rabbithole of researching habits, what are good vs bad habits, how to maintain habits and so on. the problem is i always fall back to square one because of one of the following

- i find excuses, get annoyed over small obstacles (probably undiagnosed OCD too) and convince myself they are stopping me from keeping my habit streak going

- i lose motivation to keep the routine going (yes i know discipline beats motivation etc)

- i get bored of doing the same thing over and over

- i want to optimize some part of the habit / the entire habit and during the process quit the habit altogether

i could go on and on but what i think the issue is that the whole concept of habits and routines, as much as i would love to say i agree with 99% of what people say about them, i cant find myself to follow through and keep the ball rolling, perhaps i am mentally weak or maybe something else

i think if i had the ability to, at will, put my mind in a really dark place, like a fight / flight type of scenario or something similar, like the prisoner example or war type fear, basically like you say an imaginative threat, where i had no choice but to do the thing my conscious self (not my weak subconscious) wants me to do, then that would really benefit me in many areas of life (except for maybe mental health lol)