Trouble completing work

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I posted just recently about difficulties I have with getting on with work/studying and finding myself getting easily distracted and completely absorbed in other things, mainly by this (I wish there was a succinct way to describe or refer to it, I don't know if anyone else does this and has any ideas?):

'Essentially, it's spending most of my day in 'my imagination'. I don't physically see or hear things but I physically interact with them in my imagination. So if I'm in the comfort of my own home, I can let it out and from the perspective of someone watching it looks like I'm talking to and interacting with thin air. I know the things I'm interacting with aren't there, I'm not deluded or psychotic but in my imagination 'I'm there' and it feels quite real. I like to spend a lot of time doing this. When there are people around or I'm out in public I obviously have to contain it a lot more and try to hide when it does slip out and I think someone might have seen. There are times when I'm completely engaged with something else that it does stop completely for a bit though.'

Anyway, I was struggling too with managing unstructured time and work I needed to do, outside of lectures. With the help of my mentor I now have a schedule planned out each week, covering the 'free time'. The idea of this immediately makes me feel some relief.
The trouble I'm still having and to be honest have had throughout my life, is despite having this schedule to help keep me organised and on-track, it takes me an age to do something that really shouldn't take very long. For example, I've agreed with my personal tutor to spend roughly 2 hours each week writing up a reflection we have to regularly do for our Professional Development module. This is so that I don't end up spending excessive amount of time this one piece to the detriment of other things.
Despite my 'schedule' in place, 5/6 hours later and I'm still trying to complete it :-/.

It's not always that I'm 100% focussed on it, I have real trouble getting started and tend to get distracted and spend quite a bit of time lost in the habit mentioned above. Once I get started though, progress is still painfully slow. I'm having trouble articulating exactly why I've always been like this but I just want to know if anyone else struggles in the same way and what strategies if any, they use to help them deal with it.
At school, several times they resorted to giving me a time limit and literally taking the work away from me at the time limit regardless of how much I'd done or if I'd finished, you can imagine the stress and upset that caused!

When I have trouble focusing, I take a B-Complex vitamin. I take 2 every morning, and if my concentration slips during the afternoon or evening, I take 1 more. It is water soluble so it won't harm you. It does make your pee very yellow though -- but nothing to worry about.

I also do the soluble vitamins thing. I think it does help.

I set limits with myself, like I say I'm going to work on this project for half an hour, or read say ten pages then I can have a break. Slowly but surely things get done that way

I already do the vitamins and also omega-3, I'm sure they're good for me but I don't experience any noticeable changes. I worry if I've not taken them and worry I'm suffering in some way because of it but I don't know how much of that is 'in my head'!
With the work where it's much clearer what needs to be done, like completing a workbook, I think I do still need to break it down further, in terms of time limits before a short break. The trouble at the moment is, I'm constantly playing catch up and trying to keep up, that these things get done haphazard either during the lecture we're supposed to bring them to or in odd time after I manage to look through it.

As I said, I've had the issue of taking forever to complete work throughout my studying life but I think the thing that’s making it more difficult now is the more ambiguous, independent/self-directed nature of studying at uni, which obviously I need to learn to deal with, I’m just struggling with how. 99% of the work you do outside of lectures is self-directed. At school, each and every thing you did was clearly instructed and if I needed to ask more questions I could easily do so at any point.

I've heard of some aspies thriving on self-directed study but is it uncommon to find those that are often almost paralysed with their work/study unless they're given explicit, comprehensive instructions on a task?

I really need to get on top of this and get over these issues. I was considering emailing my personal tutor (who is aware of my issues) but I'm just concerned about making myself look useless and completely incapable.

I think the only thing that really works is large amounts of willpower to disengage from distractions and focus on the tasks you have planned. The initial getting started or breaking away from distractions is probably hardest. This one requires much willpower, I can't think of anything else that works as well or sticks as well. I think the more you do it the more easily it comes in future, so it's like developing a habit. The other hard part is spending too much time once you get on task. For this one, I would say speed things up as you do the task, speed up thinking, typing, switching between software, even speed up distractions during task like checking internet. You may still go over the time, but it may be by 1 hour instead of 4 hours. This is like developing another habit. By speeding up consciously, you may be focusing more, which would help you do the task faster, so after awhile, your speed becomes fast enough, and it doesn't feel like rushing anymore, but at the beginning, it probably feels too rushed.

It takes me an uninterrupted 20 mins (on average) to get into focus -- in my "doing a good job" zone. It has to do with a variety of factors. The point is maybe it just takes you some time to find your zone of focus -- sticking with something long enough, and the painful feeling of tedium will melt away as you start to do a good job, or curiosity takes over and you can't help but to dig in and devour the information or find that awesome feeling of discovery where a black pit of confusion used to be. I love learning. I wish I could help people love it too.

I take this herbal medicine suppliments Ginkgo Biloba and fish oil. I really focus on my work. I have also tried hypnotherapy and that has worked too.

I had a meeting with my personal tutor yesterday. I emailed asking to meet with her and went armed with what I wanted to say written down as I knew I'd have a lot of trouble verbalising it.

It basically described the difficulties I've been having with my work and struggling to assimilate to the ambiguous/ self-directed nature of university.
She helped me to figure a slightly different way of doing things that I'm hoping will help me to be and feel more productive in my self-study time.

I also tried to explain the difficulties I have with managing daily life and my need to have time in a safe, comfortable place to be able to let out the 'imaginary world/interactions'. I tried to explain that the demands and stresses that attending lectures and getting through my day puts on me, with lots of time then taken up with self-directed study, I need to be able to do that work in a safe place where I'm comfortable, so that I'm not too stressed and heading for a meltdown, as I don't have to stress too much about hiding or even supressing things too much. She's going to email student support to try and find some suitable rooms for me to work in.
I guess with school, I always knew I had to be there a set time (08.45-1500), then time after that was mine (we have tried to work my timetable to fit a bit more like this too) but obviously uni requires slightly more time and work!

You have to tell yourself "it is now or never" when it comes to studying or finishing work. In class force yourself to focus. If you find yourself not paying attention then redirect your attention to the lecture. Give yourself some free time though.

I'm slowly starting to try and figure strategies which is positive. I think accepting the issues/difficulties I have is the main thing and then it's a case of trial and error and perhaps trying to be creative in finding ways round the issues/difficulties. For example, although I struggle in actual face to face conversations with people, I'm quite good (if you can call it that) at rambling away at people in my imagination, so I thought maybe I could try and utilise this.. if I can figure the right/specific questions to ask myself, I can record it with my dicatphone/software and hopefully pick out some substance for my essay. Then I just have to figure out to putting it all together. I have no idea how helpful it will be but at the very least hopefully it will be more positive in the early stages than paralysis in front of a blank page. Also, the advice my tutor has given me when I met with her has helped a bit too.