I quite like this lifehack for motivating yourself:

The Occupational Adventure (sm): 50 strategies for making yourself work

Pay yourself an hourly wage for time worked, and don't allow yourself leisure activities (movies, dinner out, etc.) unless you can pay for it with this writing money.

It's a similar idea to what I do at the moment with my finances. I create a virtual income for myself, related to, but less than my real income. For example, my pention gets divded up - some into virtual income, the rest becomes savings. My work income gets divded half and half between virtual and non virtual. And gifted income or money off the back of a truck goes completely into virtual income. Most of my day to day spending comes out of this virtual income, which keeps my spending in check.

For me, this works a lot better than a budget. With a budget, you're aware that it is a goal. However, with a virtual income, it becomes my only measure against which to asses my finances; my real income and bank balance are forgotten untill i look them up every couple of months.

The idea of paying yourself a virtual hourly wage, particularly if you work for yourself or you are a student etc, uses this same principal of a personal economy. Even though, in the back of your mind you know that it's just made up, it becomes real if its the only statistic you look at...particularly if you're the sort of person who likes lifehacks.