Just finished reading "The Power of Habit" [1], which was eye-opening. It makes a strong case that we're really a collection of habits. We can't eliminate habits from our brains, but we <i>can</i> override them with new ones over time. There are also Keystone Habits which tend to positively impact all areas of peoples' lives – exercise tends to be one, for example. In the corporate setting, he uses the example of Alcoa focusing on worker safety, and how that became a keystone habit that completely transformed all aspects of the business.<p>Also, say you have a habit of opening Facebook (or Hacker News :) when you're at your computer instead of opening up your IDE. By figuring out what reward you get out of those diversions, and being able to identify the trigger, you may be able over time to replace that 'bad' habit with a 'good' one – perhaps stretching, or talking a 5 min walk. The result might be a less fragmented day.<p>I really buy into this theory, in part because anecdotally it seems to align with examples of successful people; they have good work habits. Great writers, for instance, talk about simply sitting down at the typewriter every day. Same with comedians, painters, etc. Procrastination is a hard thing to crack, because so often we're fighting against deeply ingrained habits – by becoming mindful of them, we can potentially reshape them into habits that make us feel accomplished.<p>1: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12609433-the-power-of-habit" rel="nofollow">http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12609433-the-power-of-hab...</a>