Stephen King's advice is definitely something I can incorporate into how I work, although possibly not to the extreme degree that you have. Thank you very much, daily stand-up meetings! We have just about enough freedom over how we manage our time to make this viable. Also we have just moved to a new office which is a bit more spacious (read: easier to ignore the world for four hours if need be) so this is a good time to begin new habits.

The parallels between writing and coding are striking. Also: design in general, creative arts. Complex ill-defined multi-step problem solving. At the level of abstraction we're talking about in this thread, it all kind of looks the same. It's beautiful, but also a topic for another thread!

I can attest to the playlist idea being a good one. I like ambient music. Hiroshi Yoshimura, Brian Eno, Stars of the Lid, C418 have all served me well. Whole album streams really help maintain focus. Also, very upbeat dance music. One might suit a certain way of thinking more than the other.

Yep yep yep DEFINITELY leave work at work. This is one of the biggest things I value about having a full time job instead of university study. Any boss worth their salt knows this is how it should be done, too.