I keep a stack of blank todo lists and use one per work day. I separate each large item into actions that I rank by difficulty. After finishing a particularly d

I keep a stack of blank todo lists and use one per work day. I separate each large item into actions that I rank by difficulty. After finishing a particularly demanding action I'll do several lower hanging fruit before attempting another action that I know will be more draining. Also, I once or twice daily leave my office with my laptop and go to a coffee shop and log off Slack and e-mail and let my coworkers know that I'm gone (I just post an Oasis music video at this point on a Slack channel) and bang out whatever thing is frustrating over a small coffee. Another thing that I've found particularly helpful is beginning work around 7 am so I have about 2 hours before I need to deal with any human interaction that will pull me away from my actual work.