I try to hide my email inbox for designated chunks of time so I don’t get distracted, because sometimes I’m too eager to help my colleagues for my own good. (Their stuff usually ends up less urgent than I assume.)

Also, when starting a new task, I try to review what I need to know and then take a short walk, preferably outside. Sometimes, while carrying the task lightly in my mind, better approaches present themselves. There have even been rare occasions when I have realized the task didn’t need to be done at all. :zen:

Learn hotkeys in your favorite IDE. Using built-in hotkeys in IntelliJ and mapping keys for macro start/stop recording really improves my life.

Who needs willpower when you’re a US citizen with less than six months salary saved (aside from retirement accounts that you dare not touch because of tax penalties) and thus live in terror of poverty?