[marc0]

When I was still working in science I got into this state regularly (I called it "the Flow" since I felt like surfing on some kind of mental wave). When I joined a company I lost that experience at first, until I got to work on some sophsticated problems, and until I learned to decouple me from the environment. At university that was no problem, but at a company there are more restrictions in place (more or less fixed working hours, working environment, telephone, internal chat, meetings etc).

My strategy is to create a temporary environment which isolates you -- not necessarily in a physical way. No emails, no meetings, no talking (earphones and loud music help me much, maybe also a sign like "genius at work" -- it's funny but makes people understand you need to concentrate). And then there is only you and the code, and that's your portal into the "zone" or "flow" or whatever you want to call this meditative state.