Need to stay focused?
Behold, some advice on staying motivated on past/long term projects.
The bit about writing-down-your-ideas has, in admittedly a different format and context, kickstarted me in my thesis work after four consecutive semesters of teaching/procrastinating.
My greatest recent moment in terms of thesis productivity occurred one night a week or so ago. I'd spent the entire day wasting time (possibly googling for advice on how to be productive...) and actively hating research. Then, as I was getting ready for bed I suddenly became very enthusiastic and I felt like my entire theoretical framework fell into place, made sense, and even ticked all of those "original contribution to scholarship"-boxes I worry about.
As it happened I had an A4-notepad next to the bed, and several coloured pens on my bedside table. Ten minutes later I had a colourful mind map telling me what to write. The greatest part was that it still made sense the following morning. And it got me through a bulk of my current chapter.
I may try to convince myself that procrastination is an important part of the process for me. But I suspect it was the mindmapping that actually did it.