[drawkbox]

Similar to the 15 minutes starting trick. If you don't feel like doing it, just do 15 minutes of it and you can stop. Typically you keep on going and it starts it up.

Another trick is leave a simple tasks or error (syntax error) in the last place you were working the previous day/night. You'll jump right back in and get up and in production mode the next day, easy task to knock out and get coding.

Sometimes having another fun project that you can work on while procrastinating or thinking about your main project is helpful to keep in production mode. Procrastination sometimes is a battle of how to implement something and you should switch to a prototype mode and try them rather than overthinking the possible solutions.

Sometimes all those fail and you need something like Rescuetime but that also makes the blocked sites more desirable.

[kartickv]

A better idea to stop when you encounter a bug that you know or expect will be easy to fix. That way, you start with a sense of achievement first thing in the morning, which is exactly what you're looking for. Fixing a syntax error doesn't give me that sense of satisfaction, especially one I deliberately introduced.

[losteric]

I'm partial to TDD because it's great for that "simple task"/error-fixing mentality. About 30 minutes before leaving, I make sure I have a couple failing tests and leave them that way when I leave.

Whenever I get back to work, I can just jump in... any kind of work interruption benefits the same way.

[nyc4life]

This reminds me of a practice Ernest Hemingway supposedly used to maintain his productivity. He would purposely stop writing for the day when he was in a state of flow and knew what he would write next, so that it'd be easy to resume his progress when he came back to his desk the next day:

http://www.secondactive.com/2009/08/boost-your-productivity-...

[Gracana]

> Another trick is leave a simple tasks or error (syntax error) in the last place you were working the previous day/night. You'll jump right back in and get up and in production mode the next day, easy task to knock out and get coding.

That's a great idea. I tend to get projects finished by the end of the day, which means I have to figure out what to do in the morning, which is always a little hard. I think I'll give that a shot.