On a more tactical level here's what I do: every week I write what I've done in the past week, and what I plan to do next week. I do not stick too closely to my

On a more tactical level here's what I do: every week I write what I've done in the past week, and what I plan to do next week. I do not stick too closely to my plan for next week, but do try to do whatever I planned, and more, with the goal of maintaining high usable throughput rather than adhering to the plan per se. I do not use any management tools, and I do not "track progress" in any way. Work is broken down in chunks that take at most a day. I do this both for my own work, and when consulting for clients (separate lists). For clients the retrospective part is very easy to do, since I track my time there. This has two major effects: 1. You sort of already know what to do when otherwise there'd be an urge to procractinate because you "don't know what to do". 2. You see your actual productivity, which, if you actually sit down and work, tends to be substantial, but doesn't _feel_ substantial. To me it always feels like I haven't done much, until I write down what I have actually done.