A few things that seem to work: 1) Define a single, easily understood high-level goal. Something that's easily understood and can be accomplished in a timespa

A few things that seem to work: 1) Define a single, easily understood high-level goal. Something that's easily understood and can be accomplished in a timespan of days or weeks. It's important that this is not defined technically, but in terms of what the application can actually do. 2) Repeatedly ask myself whether what I'm doing is directly contributing to the current goal, or is required to reach it. If it's not, stop doing it and figure out what's going to get me there the fastest. 3) Wake up early and work on my project before doing anything else. Every morning I wake up, take a shower, kiss my partner on the forehead and then I am out the door to work on my project at the cafe down the street. This is the part of the day where my mind is the most fresh, and it's not possible that something else has taken my attention and distracted me from the goal at hand, or tired me out so much I don't have the energy to work on it. Also once you get in the habit it's hard not to work on it once you wake up.