[Excluse]

Contrary to what a lot of people here have said about boring tasks, I find that's the easiest way for me to get into the zone.

While it may not be my most economically productive part of the day (aka I'm not working on the hard, important problems) there's no doubt that for the 10-15 minutes one of those menial tasks requires, I'm in that special state.

An environmental trigger for me is to play familiar music. It doesn't have to be a special playlist; any album I've listened to >50 times will suffice.

Remaining in the zone requires incremental progress (momentum) which I think is easy to find in a boring, repetitive task that's squarely in your wheelhouse.

The real productivity sweet spot is when you're able to get that momentum going on a valuable project.