- StayFocusd Chrome extension to prevent me from going into social networking sites while I'm working
- "...knowing that all the \"other stuff\" I have to do is done. Inbox clear, no meetings about to happen, etc."
- Knowing when I'm too tired to keep working efficiently
- Being away on IM/IRC except for work
- Keeping work conversations to IM/IRC as much as possible
- "...shutting out every around me. Headphones on, music loud." I prefer music without vocals, e.g., electro
- Using http://www.gunnars.com/ to minimize eye fatigue
- Knowing Emacs well to improve code editing speed
- Having unittests to validate my changes quickly
- Using screen or tmux to quickly switch between shells while maintaining a full screen for each...code, shell, unittests, Python shell, database shell
- Using Xmonad to quickly switch between Desktop workspaces while maintaining a full screen for each
- Avoiding the mouse as much as possible, even on the browser (Vimium extension)
- Using the ThinkPad nipple when I do have to use the mouse
- I don't use an external monitor at all. I find the constant neck motion to switch between them tiring and distracting. The combination of screen, Xmonad and Gnome notifications allows me the same application throughput with less distraction and without sacrificing screen space.
That's just off the top of my head. There's probably a lot more. Maybe I should write a blog post about it.