A few things that have given me motivation:
1) Grinding for Shards. If you play Bronze League then this obviously isn't going to work, but grinding Silver and Gold/Platinum using the appropriate deck can cause your score to climb as you set out to accomplish an additional goal as you grind.
2) Multitasking. I think this applies more to AI3 grinding than Arena grinding because Arena grinding usually requires more focus. But in any event, if you're watching a movie or carrying out a conversation with a person in the same room as you then it can take the strain off of grinding. I don't advise doing this when your significant other wants your undivided attention :
D
3) Music. This is probably one of the greatest sources of motivation for me personally. Lately I've gotten into this system of searching YouTube for certain songs that I may like, playing the song, and then grinding as the song plays. If it's a song that I want to hear more of (and I mean a LOT more) then I'll put it on repeat and grind as I take in the song's awesomeness. However, I have a preference for listening to songs with very fast beats so I can't say if this also works with slower genres of music.
4) Try switching decks whenever you feel yourself getting bored. There are a lot of fun and interesting ideas posted by others on the forums that deserve being used at least once in a serious player's lifetime. By switching decks you can take away the usual monotony of grinding. In addition, you can also use this method until you find a deck which seems to be much more useful for gaining score against whatever AI level you're playing.
5) Self-motivation. As you continue to grind towards level 80 (and then even more so once you pass level 80) you'll find it more difficult to actually want to grind. But there are a few ways that you can put that drive back into you on your own.
- Find a rival. There are different ways that you can go about doing this. You can find someone whose score amount is similar to your own and who grinds frequently. Or you can assign someone above you that you eventually want to surpass and grind with the intent to do so. This became more difficult when T50 was removed, but those who use Kong should be able to use its highscore system to keep track of things like this.
- Set a goal for yourself each day. I usually find this one helps me the most. What I usually end up doing is setting a score amount daily that I must reach before I can allow myself to stop grinding. I personally change the goal amount each day depending on how busy/distracted I am or if I don't plan on staying up late. I tend to set my goal amounts in 2500 point intervals with 10k being my usually maximum. There are many instances where I'll set a goal for myself and then continue grinding just because I feel like it. This usually takes place when I'm also listening to a really electrifying song; yesterday I had set my goal to 7500 but ended up grinding ~15k score because the music playing here made us wild and crazy.
6) The forums. This can be a double-edged sword at times. On one hand, it's good to have the forums as something that allows you to take brief breaks from grinding (I usually check the forums every two games in Platinum), but on the other hand distracting yourself and then taking the time to type out walls of text (like this ;
D) can definitely hinder your grinding speed.