To get into the zone, Mountain Dew + Nine Inch Nails, and keeping small dev tasks on hand, as suggested elsewhere, works wonders. I like todo lists (BaseCamp),

To get into the zone, Mountain Dew + Nine Inch Nails, and keeping small dev tasks on hand, as suggested elsewhere, works wonders. I like todo lists (BaseCamp), haven't tried GTD. To stay in the zone, /away on AIM/Gtalk, check email once per hour (thanks, The 4 Hour Work Week), phone on vibrate or off. Making sure processes are handled as a queue and not a stack so as to avoid the mania (stress++) of putting out 1000 small fires. No re-prioritizing anything if someone manages to get through the screens above. Most of all, as mentioned in another thread earlier, remembering that this is a lifestyle; "ok I'll just binge now and start doing x,y,z when I've [launched, fixed those bugs, implemented the next feature, gotten funding, ... ]" is a way to burn out and ignore the value of and need for finesse and balance in all things.