The thing that has really worked for me is disabling all the "procrastination" sites (Hacker News, Reddit, BBC etc) on my work machine and keeping a netbook / i

The thing that has really worked for me is disabling all the "procrastination" sites (Hacker News, Reddit, BBC etc) on my work machine and keeping a netbook / ipad in the living room for browsing. This is a light version of the advice that PG gives here http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html, for those of us that actually need an internet connection to work. The other one is a fixed work day. It's a lot easier to allow yourself a "quick check of the news" at 3pm when you say to yourself that you'll be working until 10pm. That's very different when you've only got 3 hours left. Central to all of this is getting started. Normally if you can avoid giving into the craving to dick around and get started with work, within a couple of minutes you will be into it. A trick there is to say "I'll work for ten minutes and then check the news" rather than the other way around. There is also a question of managing brainspace. There I found that the first thing I do in the morning has a huge influence on what preoccupies me for the rest of the day. So I try to resist the temptation to start my day with email or checking the news and make sure my first thoughts are dedicated to productive work.