[rmtutty]

You're describing me until about age 30.

1. You need to realize that if something was easy or obvious, it would already exist. The only things worth doing are things that appear impossible.

2. Don't try to keep it all in your head at once. Get good at making a plan or a list of steps, following them (almost blindly), and correcting course every few steps. Taking a big problem apart and bringing small steps to completion keeps things interesting.

3. Make sure you're doing something you're personally interested in. Not everyone is cut out to dig ditches for the man.

[nehan]

This -- you have to realize there are two different versions of you. You1 is ambitious and smart and wants to do awesome things. You1 should think things through, actually plan things out, and write things down. At a detailed level!

You2 is super lazy and won't do anything even slightly difficult unless you make it really obvious and clear. You2 needs commit to following You1's plan; this requires discipline, but also a really easy-to-follow plan.

[azeirah]

Where were you before you turned 30, what did you do that you did or did not like? And what happened to trigger the change in your thirtieth year?

[jkaunisv1]

The mindset shift for me was realizing that I kept having really fun/great ideas, but I didn't want to die with notebooks full of ideas and none of them implemented.

One thing that helped me towards getting them done has been to make projects as small as possible. For anything that I can't do in an afternoon, I try to make sure I can accomplish something small every day.

But it also took a lot of practice at improving self discipline (reading about it, writing about it, building habits), fixing my sleep schedule (way less lazy when I go to sleep at 11pm and wake up at 7am), and starting on pills to combat depression.

As others have said, make sure you love what you're working on. That's important. Don't get sucked into our society's focus on "productivity" over all else if it's not what works for you. There's more to life than producing output, and you are not what you create.