"Reconsider blogging. Yes, I know, this is heresy. However, I found that it was really hurting my productivity, and my desire to create a great blog post was sucking time away from creating a great app."
Using your own advice,("Assign specific times for surfing and goofing off. Give yourself one hour in the morning to check email/news/blogs/etc... and don't surf again until lunch. Another hour or so, max, and then back to work.") one could just allot a couple of hours a week to blogging and thus avoid it becoming a productivity sink ;-)
Agreed. You just have to set priorities and know yourself. My "goof-off" time is mostly used for research on various topics and that takes priority over blogging for me.
Using your own advice,("Assign specific times for surfing and goofing off. Give yourself one hour in the morning to check email/news/blogs/etc... and don't surf again until lunch. Another hour or so, max, and then back to work.") one could just allot a couple of hours a week to blogging and thus avoid it becoming a productivity sink ;-)