I think long-term productivity seems to come mostly from consistent, intense effort. I've read that a lot of writers only write for about three hours a day. The

I think long-term productivity seems to come mostly from consistent, intense effort. I've read that a lot of writers only write for about three hours a day. The key is that they do this every day and it adds up. If you just put in a few hours a day of intense work, over time, you will accomplish a lot and be ahead of most people. For example, John Grisham started writing books by writing just one page every day. The best producers, however, seem to combine intense work with lots of time. Isaac Asimov worked many hours a day and published 1700 words per day on average. (http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/11/5-unusual-things-i-learned-from-isaac-asimov/ http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/11/5-unusual-things-i-lear...) To acheive consistency, you can't sabotage tomorrow's work by working late today. So 100% completion of today's work should be a goal in the context of the understanding that today's work has a definite ending time that is necessary to enable a successful tomorrow. Here's an article on deliberate practice: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/DeliberatePractice(PsychologicalReview).pdf http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/D... Here are two articles that give some insight into how writers work: http://io9.com/5106135/science-fiction-novelists-reveal-their-daily-writing-routines http://io9.com/5106135/science-fiction-novelists-reveal-thei..., http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/01/11/25-famous-thinkers-and-their-inspiring-daily-rituals/ http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/01/11/25-famous-thinkers-a...