I find that once I start coding, I almost always enjoy it. It's just very hard to START doing it. What I have done to combat this is constantly have my code open. I never close it. Even when playing games, its open in the background. A lot of times what will happen is I'll think of something small to do and since it is already open, I'll make a quick change. Then that will lead to another change. Before I know it, I've just coded for 3 hours, enjoyed my time doing it, and made a lot of progress.

Once you can get over the initial hump of STARTING, you probably already won the battle. There have been so many nights when I didn't feel like coding and just forced myself to do it anyway and then 5 hours later (when I should have been sleeping) I was still working (and enjoying it).

Yup, starting is the hardest for me. I should try what you do.

A related question for you guys, have you ever procrastinated by playing your own game you're working on? The most guiltless procrastinating I've ever done.

I put the pro in procrastination. Most of mine seems to come from me being unmotivated. You need to find out how to motivate yourself.

I have that problem ALL THE TIME at school and getting off my lazy rear and doing something with myself (learning c++) does anyone have any suggestions for overcoming this problem

Are you being taught C++? If not you could try an easier to understand language. C++ is harder to understand on your own than a lot of other languages, though I know a lot of people disagree.

If you were studing business or science, it would be completely obvious that playing games instead of working on your assignments is a bad idea. I understand where you are coming from with the being exposed idea, but you can probably see alomst everything new in the first 10-15 minutes of the game. You should spend less time looking at the edge, and more time getting closer to it.

The people who made those games made them by making them, not playing them.