I use the Pomodoro technique of applying absolute focus to small tasks for 25 minutes. A lot of people use it with the GTD methodology. There's a nice website

I use the Pomodoro technique of applying absolute focus to small tasks for 25 minutes. A lot of people use it with the GTD methodology. There's a nice website (http://tomatoi.st http://tomatoi.st) that lets you start a Pomodoro timer right in your browser. It's pretty convenient. As far as planning projects out, it's a well known adage that minutes spent planning saves hours stuck in the position you seem to be describing. I used to be a hack-and-slash coder myself, slinging bits and pieces here and there until a final (albeit mangled) product emerged. Trust me, it's a lot cleaner and easier to plan things out in significant detail before sitting down at your IDE.