One trick I've learned is to just show up. Instead of planning to write a whole module in a day, I now plan to just write 5 lines of code. This has helped me a lot - I've picked up two programming languages in three months just with the intent of watching one minute a day. I've had a lot of work done on my side project and have recently been getting fan mail on it. I cut down on a lot of bad things simply by planning twelve 2-minute tasks a day, and being engrossed in them.
Similarly, it's important to avoid creeping into bad behavior. Once we drop good behavior, once we're a couple minutes late for a meeting, a class, a deadline, things rapidly deteriorate from there.
Career wise, my goal is no longer to make a better salary (I have enough), but to do more meaningful work that I'm satisfied with. Meaningful work tends to be recession-proof too.