How to avoid procrastination during the research phase of my PhD?

I just finished all of my coursework for my PhD program, and am entering the research phase of my degree with a topic already in mind. I've already started the research, but I'm already finding that I end up procrastinating a lot of my time away. When I was taking courses, I felt like i didn't have time to procrastinate because of the pace of the classes and I felt like I had to always keep up with the pace. But now that I have no specific constraints, I feel like its harder to pace myself.

Of course, I know it's a bad habit to procrastinate and I should probably devote most of my waking hours to my research. Sometimes, (especially when I get stuck) I find it's so easy to get distracted on the computer (websites, youtube, text messages, etc.).

What are some effective strategies to avoid procrastination during this research phase? How do you stay on task, especially when you get stuck?

Answer

I write both weekly and daily 'to do' lists if I'm stuck in a procrastination routine. The weekly lists are more general, the daily ones as detailed as possible, with essentially everything I should do that day, however small it seems. It feels good to tick things off - it shows me that I made progress and gives me incentive to go on. Usually there's one or two things on the list that I really should not postpone for tomorrow, and many less important ones. I sometimes do the big stuff first, sometimes last, it really depends on my mood that day. I also allow myself to push the smaller things to the next day if I don't feel like doing them. That way I feel that I have some wiggle room, but it's constrained to the stuff that doesn't matter much anyway.

I also noticed that I tend to be more efficient when I have something planned at the end of the day, i.e. I know have to leave the office at five and stop working until tomorrow. This gives me a feeling of a small deadline, and deadlines are good at eliminating procrastination.

Finally, as someone mentioned already, nothing beats working with people. Having weekly meetings with my supervisor, where a decision is made on what I will achieve until the next meeting, tops it all.