A stupidly simple analysis of work is just did you start working and did you keep working. Your ability to work is dictated by your ability to stay on track and to start. I don’t think there is much else to it, my most productive days all have 1 thing in common I sat down, focused and worked. Some days were elaborate getting up at 4:30 exercising, stretching and writing, etc. others were just I got up at 8:00 and started. Hopefully your experience is similar and I am not crazy (or at least only a little crazy).

Therefore the 2 most important things, are what you do before you start work and your response when your mind begins to wander. We are all very different and a perfect morning is not going to be standard, I find the obvious sleep, coffee and exercise helpful. The other factor which is more difficult to control is your response to impulses.

Distractions and impulses are ever present when your entire working life is on a computer and it is your response to them which is important. Impuslses have a tendency to start small and snowball. On the days when I waste a lot of time I seldom go straight to doing something large and stupid I first do something inconsequentially stupid and build up. It is logical then to cut out the small seed impulses and control those but I think that is too much to expect. If we instead let those go and only focus on the large ones we can set more reasonable expectations and still see most of the benefit. Lately I have been delaying the response to impulses using a 5 minute timer. The delay gives me time for the impulse to dissipate and or lets me see how stupid the impulse really was.