Tedious tasks: What do you do to keep on target?

[Rosencrantz]

Right now I'm trying to make a character generator that gives you a first name + a superpower out of two huge lists of names and powers, but each time I look at the code I end up sleeping for six hours. I'm not even joking about that.

Any tips on keeping on task?

Any tips on how to put a huge list of things in quote marks with minimal effort?

(the words all have to be like this: "Agatha" "Jackson" "Zeynep" and "Telepathy" "Cyberpathy" "Fire control" now put this at over a hundred for each list)

the most embarrassing part is how I've been raised my fifth thought was 'maybe I can just pay someone?'

[mlp4me]

Coffee!!

Take some breaks, your eyes tend to get buggy if you stare at a monitor for too long and with what you're doing I'd be going crazy too!

[cuddlebuggy]

Set a timer and work for 20 minutes at a time. Take a 5 minute break (set a timer for that too!) to stretch, snack, drink etc... then right back to it. Every time you wander off, start the timer over. (I usually find myself going to great lengths to avoid things I don't want to do!)
You could also create a 20 minute playlist instead, I know that helps me time my workouts.
Good luck!

[Rosencrantz]

These are excellent ideas.

[kaoskat]

Don't look at me! Everything distracts me!

[Sprinkles]

Don't look at me! Everything distracts me!

Same

[melodys_angel]

take 15 minute breaks.

If youre at something for more then an hour at a time you loose focus.

[Hervoyel]

Just keep reminding yourself that staying on track means it'll be finished faster.

That, and coffee! 

[SunPony]

I have had similar situations with boring, tedious data entry or simple image manipulation.  My choice is to pick one song and listen to it over and over again while working, and after one full hour of work, I could do something fun for a few minutes, like play Robot Unicorn Attack until I "died" or eat a piece of candy.  But make sure not to stress out your typing/mouse hands too much!