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The silliness is the point. Your future self can feel like a stranger you owe nothing to, and turning that person into a character with a grievance brings some of the sympathy back. Teenagers, and anyone who bristles at being managed, often take to this when a serious version of the same conversation would get nowhere.
That man will only have what he has worked towards (Quran 53:39). Thursday you inherits exactly what Monday you did, and nothing besides.
النجم
وَأَن لَّيۡسَ لِلۡإِنسَٰنِ إِلَّا مَا سَعَىٰ
that man will only have what he has worked towards
Qur’an 53:39read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A systematic review of gamified cognitive tasks looked at whether making effortful, repetitive work more game-like improves how people engage with it. The picture there is mixed, and what was reviewed were computer tasks rather than jokes you make with yourself, so treat this as a hint that playfulness helps engagement rather than a tested technique.
Lumsden J, Edwards EA, Lawrence NS, Coyle D, Munafò MR. (2016). Gamification of Cognitive Assessment and Cognitive Training: A Systematic Review of Applications and Efficacy.. JMIR serious games doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
You look after your future self better once that self feels like someone you know.
If not knowing makes you itch, the work is learning to sit with the itch rather than making it go away. The plan can stay unfinished while you get on with today.
Before deciding you are avoiding something, check that you actually know what it wants. How long, in what form, by when, and what counts as finished.
Some days the whole job is putting everything you need in one place and then walking away. Tomorrow you begin already halfway in.