Joel Spolsky said something similar. Paraphrasing: You find motivation by just committing a little bit every day: 10 minutes, 30 minutes. Once you get into it, you'll most likely do more.
This works for me with workout. I commit to workout 10min everyday. Sometimes I and up doing more like 40m, sometimes only 10m, and it's ok.
And of course, I reduced the start energy for it. If it's only 10m, probably I will do it at home with some equipment.
I heard this advice in relation to doing chores-- don't think about the pile of dishes you need to do, then you'll never do the dishes. Just motivate yourself to do a single dish. Once you are in the context of doing dishes, the second dish comes much easier, then the third, and before you know it the dishes are done.
I take some dishes out of the dishwasher and put them on the table. Then I feel compelled to take out the rest and then put them all away, so it's easy.