The true definition of productivity is doing significant work that moves you closer to your prime objective.
I'm reading an instruction by Ben Arment, author of Dream Year provides a wealth of tips to launch yourself into a new dream.
Busy is not necessarily productive. It's what you're actually doing that matters.
New: I am using the MiCounter Google Chrome Extension and set it to count down from 6. I click it each time I do one of my 6 things for the day.
Productive tasks vs. unproductive tasks.
If the work feels hard, it's likely productive. The less you want to do it, the more likely you should. It's the 20% that we don't want to do that produces 80% of the impact. It's more productive to do what you don't want to do than to make excuses or work on something less productive.
Why do we spend 80% of our time on the things that don't move us forward? It's because they are the easy things. Spending 80% of our time on the unproductive leaves only 20% of the time for the productive. If you operate at 20% capacity, you are far from your true potential!