Thanks! That chair exercise sounds reeeallly hard! Might have to put myself through that. I think some people call that "meditating" (hehe).
It sounds like you may be the Rebel - based on the framework of The Four Tendencies, the Rebel doesn't want to listen to anyone, even herself, so it helps to trick or coax yourself as you describe. I am the Questioner. I listen to myself but question everything else, unless I can assign my own "why" to the problem. I guess that makes me extra succeptible to my own BS when my mind starts making excuses.
I'd not heard of that theory but it sounds spot-on. Yes, Rebel here with maybe a tinge of the Obliger. Very interesting! And no wonder Lakein's book helped me (aha!) because it's full of tricks like that - coaxing not pushing.
Meditating would be a good use of the sit in the chair exercise. Don't think we could call that wasting time either, right? ;-}