How do you deal with procrastination?

Oh, this is such a thought-provoking and, I believe, very important topic.  I am a terrible procrastinator.  But at least I have become more aware of it and have started to take it somewhat seriously.

Your first two methods of dealing with it I can relate to, especially the second one.   If I have gone ahead and started to do some dreaded task, I soften the horrific sense of urgency that inevitably goes with it by giving myself mini-rewards and mini-breaks, like you said, before, during and after.   Doing this manages to disarm how intimidating said task may be.  

Another thing I do is I prioritize those dreaded tasks.  I rate them and rank them, and say there are seven things that really need to get done in the next five days.  Rather than attempting to take on the number one, most intimidating and dreaded task of responsibility, I will scroll down and take on something lesser, say the third or fifth most daunting task.   Which, of course, makes me breathe a sigh of relief because, compared to number one, number four is practically a piece of cake, and I can get something important done without being bound up by nerves, and usually I can get that task done faster and better, simply by virtue of the fact that I wasn't nervous about doing it.  In fact, I even play this mind game with myself and allow myself to think that I am getting away with procrastinating (because I'm NOT doing that scary thing at the top of my list of "scary things to do") when, in fact, I am actually being productive by doing something that is two or three places further down on my list, but still needs to get done.