The simplest productivity hack is finding passion. I never seen a windsurfer procrastinate. If you are truly enjoying your work and can't wait to do it, there is nothing going to stop you.
Unfortunately, that's not an easy thing to do. It's not practical for 90% of people. Being software developers, we're lucky, but even though I love what I do, I often hate doing it for other people.
The worst productivity advice I am hearing over and over.
I ensure you that there are many passionate writers, graphic designers and... programmers, who procrastinate a lot.
One of a big finding for me was that it is NOT nearly as much if I like something or not[1]. Is about knowing the next step and maintaining focus (especially with keeping the time "now" not "not now"). (However, I speak from ADHD perspective; maybe for non-ADHD people passion is sufficient.)
[1] For a stark comparison: I procrastinate on open-ended side-projects I love (sometimes for years), but when there is some accounting issue I solve it ASAP.
> But it doesn't seem like top pro athletes and olympians procrastinate.
I don't think you can become a top pro athlete or olympian if you're not the fraction of a fraction of the world's population with immense intrinsic motivation, passion, ambition, and drive -- so this seems like survivorship bias.
Sometimes one can be in a situation of the Buridan's Ass, there are multiple things interesting and exciting, but one can't fully commit to any of them, and end up doing none of them.
That's more than likely because the moment you do start procrastinating as a professional wind surfer, like in any sport, you immediately get ousted by every hopeful who's willing to put in the hours to get access to an extremely limited pool of things that pay in that field.