For me, productivity is 90% about existing in a time and place without blockers. You can have all the right ideas (and even the least productive people I know are full of great ideas) but a single blocker can take your productivity from 100 to 0 indefinitely.

* For programming, this can be knowing a language very well, having smart coworkers who can help with issues, and a plan of how your software will look in the end.

* For getting in shape it can be living near your gym and going to bed at 10:30 instead of 11.

* For writing it can be about turning off message notifications and keeping an outline to prevent writer's block (honestly I'm still working on this one).

I can go on, but this realization has been tremendously useful to me, and lets me exist in "10x productivity mode" many times longer than in the past. While I don't agree with his politics, I strongly believe Scott Adams' ideas around systems vs goals is the right way of thinking of life. You shouldn't expend energy achieving specific goals, you should set your life up so it takes minimal effort to be productive and live a good life. http://blog.dilbert.com/post/102964992706/goals-vs-systems