How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work?
jraines: In high school I dealt with boring work by seeing how fast I could do it.  After a while I'd usually be able to do it (if it wasn't, say, a term paper) at school, and not even sweat it at home.  Not a good strategy if you're trying to be top of your class, but it did make me a good standardized test taker.  Also my high school was not particularly challenging, so YMMV.Also, the answers you've gotten are pretty much true, and no amount of 'mind hacks' is going to change that.  You won't be unhappy the rest of your life, though.  High school is pretty much the peak of that stuff.  Later you'll have a lot more flexibility to put yourself in a situation to avoid it (rule #1 for this: don't get into debt)