The book the "Artist's Way at Work" by Mark Bryan, Julia Cameron, and Catherine Allen offers an approach called "morning pages" that is similar to a log but helps to overcome writers block (as well as act as a refinery for written pieces still percolating). Some references:
http://www.artistswayatwork.com/
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0688166350
http://paperartstudio.tripod.com/artistsway/id3.html
although the book encourages you to write them in longhand I found that typing on a laptop in a coffee shop or library or anywhere that was different from where I normally worked (to break association with work space) worked for me.