One method I did have a lot of success with was a time spent spreadsheet I created. For any given date I'd enter individual times I started and stopped working on it - so it might be 10am until 11.30am, 2pm until 5pm, and so on.

For each day I'd sum the hours spent, and then I had a target hours to hit each week - 20 at first, then 30, and eventually 40. This is while also working a day job, otherwise I'd probably have tried increasing it by 1.5-2x.

A key rule I followed was this: once I hit enough hours for the day to be on track for the weekly goal, I could then do whatever I felt like with my remaining time. Ironically I'd often keep working on it as the momentum was already going, but just as often I'd go relax.

Pretty good system all in all.

Rule 2: Begin working immediately, as soon as I wake up.

Rule 3: Internet and Phone stays off for the first hour. "

You have DigitalOcean because myself and a few other folks did this consistently for 5 years straight.

They're good rules for accomplishing something.

Definitely does NOT work for me.

My recipe, such as it is:

1. Be gentle with myself every morning. I may wake vaguely human, but consciousness and acuity require coffee, word games, ablutions, and point 2.

2. Dog walking, aka DW, aka Diagnostic Wandering, allows me to breathe fresh air, let my mind wander or perhaps let it focus. Most of the best code I've written in the last 4 years has been DW code. All of the weird bug discoveries have been DW discoveries. Most - and almost all - of my discoveries about how ND I am and how I really work have been DW discoveries.

3. Recognize which brain I have today, and select issues/workload based on that...

4. ...unless I really, really must, MUST, work on something specific, in which case force it, knowing there is a cost.

5. Recover from such costs as quickly as possible, but as gently as possible (cf #1, #2).

6. When off-roading with my very good friend the CTO, do NOT talk about work...

7. ...unless we both agree something needs 30-90s, after which resume #6.

8. Watch football all day Saturday, if possible, preferably Liverpool, but not necessarily. Detach. (If Saturday is impossible, e.g., family obligations, substitute Sunday.)

9. Read in bed every night before turning off the light, regardless of how tired I am. Subject is irrelevant (current bedside stack: LotR (again), two books of category theory, Ulysses). One sentence, one paragraph, one page, or as many as need be, until I start to drift off. If my GF has to collect the book from chest and turn off the light, so much the better! :-> (She's a night owl, there is no cost and there is much joy to her in this.)

10. Endeavour to start the bedtime process between 2300 and 2330 as often as possible - but see #1 re gentleness. DO teeth. EVERY night. REGARDLESS.

11. Nap occasionally. Ah, my 60s.

12. Recognize when #11 is a MUST, not just a SHOULD.

Let the brain cook and stew and bubble and backburn whilst doing other things. As effective as DWs for things that are more "R" than "d".

> Rule 2: Begin working immediately, as soon as I wake up.

> Rule 3: Internet and Phone stays off for the first hour.

This do actually work for me too.

The days that I'm the most productive is when I wake up, and almost immediately jump straight in building.

The few extra thing includes: 1) Get a mug (big one) of water a.k.a H2O, 2) Grab some saltine cracker to suppress hungry until lunch time, 3) Open SoundCloud/some music app. Wastes about three minutes total. Then, it's just me, the music and idea flowing out to the real world.

If I have to make myself a breakfast, it will ...break... my momentum very ...fast. I often just start checking phone while waiting things to heat up etc.

It's not healthy for long term, not eating breakfast, but it's fine if you do it one day for every month or so.

I found a way to work on my project every day, without willpower.

I just eliminated all the failure modes.

1. Skipping days breaks momentum: I can't skip days. (So I made it easy to win: I only need to show up for an hour.)

2. Delaying the work leads to missed days. I get tired, I get distracted, I forget. So I decided I need to work as soon as I wake up. Then I guarantee it gets done.

3. Distracted by stupid BS. Noticed that all my distraction came from the internet, and getting distracted would tank productivity for the remainder of the day. So I just unplug the router before bed.

That's my whole system, and I'm using it right now. (I used it to write this post!)

The deeper idea here is ... just find out what's making you fail, and see if you can't design around that. Just design it so those things do not happen. Then you will win by default.

Hope this helps! :)

---

P.S. the astute reader may observe that this describes the Q2 category in the Eisenhower Matrix[0] (Important But Not Urgent): things we want to get done "someday", but which will never get done unless we make time it.

i.e., our hopes and dreams...

For this reason, I very strongly recommend dedicating the first hour to Q2. Q1 "handles itself", by definition. Q2 is the one that needs love!

(That probably should have been the main thesis. Oh well!)

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47467854

“ More than 150 inspired—and inspiring—novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians on how they subtly maneuver the many (self-inflicted) obstacles and (self-imposed) daily rituals to get done the work they love to do.”