[rorhug]

> The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel, you will never be stuck.

This is always hard. When things are going well (in flow, on a roll etc.) you want to continue and get it all out. When you get stuck in writing, programming or anything, taking a break seems to make sense after a few moments of toil.

[keyle]

Yes and besides things happen during the next day, that doesn't mean you'll want to get going again, regardless of how good of a state you left progress in.

[EGreg]

Maybe it’s like anything else... to get into an activity you have to get some quick wins scaffolding. So you set it up from your previous day but not something insurmountable. But the same could be true if you were just starting on a new problem. A large reward/effort ratio motivates you to see what else you can get. And that’s true regardless of whether you were the one who set up the problem the day before.