- writing that uncomfortable email that's been lingering on your todo list - begin to write your next blog post - not a coder myself, but I would assume that this all applies to writing code / fixing/finding bugs, too.
On a related note, the last thing you do before you sleep can also have a very positive effect on your next day's productivity. I find that going to through / defining the top 3 goals for the day after helps me structure my work and be more motivated to pick up directly on those todos right after I get up.
After a while, when you can see that you're making clear progress towards a goal its easier to slip in to the producer mindset.
What's hard to get past in the beginning of learning to program is that you're going to spend 80% of your time googling, 15% debugging code, and 5% writing code. It can feel really unsatisfying to spend 2 hours googling a problem you're having and the solution taking 3 minutes to implement.
How would it work? Would you wake up, and have _one_ hour to produce something? Would it be related to your project? Writing a blog post about your project? Or is that beating around the bush, and actually not producing anything worthwhile?
Does the thing that you produce, have to mean anything? Or does it only have to mean something to you?
I only ask, because I'm exactly like this guy, and I only want to better myself.