The biggest moment for me was when I started thinking about productivity (or its absence) as a matter of willpower, and started to think strategically about how to make it easy. It's still a struggle to think that way: it seems like you should be able to grit your teeth, roll up your sleeves, and become productive. But that's not really how our brains work. Not mine, at least. For me, after that mindset shift, the most valuable strategies have been creating early external deadlines, drafting in longhand or into a voice recorder—and, above all and whenever possible, working closely with awesome collaborators rather than alone.