Rules are meant to be broken :-)

1) You must consume in order to be exposed to new things. If you're just producing you will tend to be limited, the world is much larger than what you're producing

2) having BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) is helpful to keep you going and not just do small goals for small goals'sake

3) Say yes to new opportunities

The 10AM code commit is a good trick. Might be helpful to resist the urge to check Twitter & HN at 9AM "just for 10 minutes".