Generically: Learn your tools. Whether it's bash (can I recommend this? http://www.catonmat.net/download/bash-history-cheat-sheet.pdf http://www.catonmat.net/

Generically: Learn your tools. Whether it's bash (can I recommend this? http://www.catonmat.net/download/bash-history-cheat-sheet.pdf http://www.catonmat.net/download/bash-history-cheat-sheet.pd... ) with the ability to do very fancy stuff with the command line, vim, emacs, Eclipse, or the MS tools, learn them. Backwards and forwards. You aren't done until you have hundreds of keyboard shortcuts memorized and in daily use. Learn how to use grep, find, less, xargs, and awk. The returns on learning these tools well are amazing. Also, do less. In order to be good at something, no matter what that is -- programming, math, entrepreneurship -- you need to focus and spend a lot of time on it. In order to do that, you need to find that time, and the easiest way to find time is to prioritize what you are doing and do less. If something isn't important to you, then don't do it. For me that's TV -- I don't own one. South Park, all 14 episodes a year, are available online both legally and illegally.