I know what you mean. Most of the time such advice like this makes sense, and some of it is indeed backed up by psychological research, but it's hard to see that unless you know of the research yourself. A lot of the time what seems like common sense is actually contrary to findings in psychology research. The book 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman is a good starting point here and it offers lots of advice which is backed up with research and data. For example, the book talks about how smiling can make you feel happier, which I had discovered to be true for myself on my own accord.
One thing I'm looking into is using self-administered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to overcome various problems, such as procrastination. I have found this, which I posted on HN earlier:
This uses REBT, or Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, which is a form of CBT and, apparently, the most extensively researched form. See here for more details:
CBT has been proven effective for a number of psychological issues such as anxiety and depression and I'm really interested in its potential applications to other problems. There's more info here with a ton of citations:
You have to go with "whatever works" in any case. If a study showed that technique X improved productivity for 95% of the people, you might still be in the 5% that it didn't help. Research psychologists will emphatically tell you that all people are not the same.
For now, I guess we goes with "whatever works for me".