It's OK to expect little payoffs constantly. Split up tasks in small chunks and tick them off as you complete them. Large tasks seem daunting. Small tasks are just that "tasks". Stuff you do without really worrying about it.

Using a TODO lists when you already know roughly what you have to do can help enormously. The mundane act of ticking off a box next to a small task is enough motivation to get started on the next task.

Especially in the morning it can be tempting to "catch up" with all the HN posts, but if you go through your TODO list and see that you have to "fix link on page X" it's really easy to just do it. Only takes a minute. You know what you have to do, and it doesn't "feel" like work. And when you've started the next task automatically follows.

You can even put off simple tasks so you can do them whenever you're not feeling motivated, just to help you get started.