Take the Plunge!

From Programmer 97-things

One thing that you never see on a resume, but is a critical attribute of any programmer, is your productivity. Since the dawn of computer time (and I'm talking about BEFORE the Unix epoch), programmers, and especially their project managers, have been worried about "programmer velocity." This has been measured in such primitive ways as lines of production code per day (I remember when 10 lines of C code a day was considered respectable...) to more recent calculations of user stories per Sprint, and so on. It's important to note that even the most primitive measures concern themselves with the quality of the code as much as the volume: when building, 100 lines of spaghetti are not better than 10 lines of steel.

It is well known that there is wild variation in the productivity of programmers. Factors such as familiarity with the platform, and knowledge of the business and the application can have a big impact on your ability to contribute. However, disposition and personal practices can also play a big part in your productivity. Many blogs and books have been written on the subject (I recommend The Productive Programmer by Neal Ford). Any programmer that cares about what they can accomplish should take some time to study and work on their productivity.

Discussions on improving productivity tend to focus on two things: finding the best tools, and avoiding outside distractions. But I find that sometimes internal blockages can be as debilitating as external ones.