These are all valid points, but IMHO these fall under fine-tuning for max. performance when you're already fairly efficient. For us struggling with basics one thing that helped me a lot was to shift the focus from micro-optimization of "how I work", to focusing on the rest of my time first. Not letting myself to drift away from work for too long (like now reading HN), trying to cut on time-wasters so that I still can have enough sleep/exercise/free time, having realistic goals for the amount of work I take, etc. Putting that side of equation under control can then significantly simplify optimizing the work performance.