If you've ever worked a day in your life, you know what the Zone is, though you might not have called it that. It's that magical state where you start working at 7am and the next time you look up the project is done and it's 7pm and you don't know how you got there. Alcohol has a similar effect, but without the productivity. Sometimes we slip into the zone very easily, but sometimes it can become difficult due to everyday distractions like email, or your coworkers begging you to play a game of 8-ball with them. (Speaking of which, check out the new scoreboard! I'm winning, suckers!)

Different things work for different people, but the most helpful thing I can do to get in the zone is to strap on the headphones and fire up the 'Coding' playlist. For me, this playlist consists of hard metal or electronic music that I've heard a million times. It blocks out the world while I work. Some people require different music — I had a friend in college who couldn't code to anything but Tool. Kent, the Innova Graphics and Drupal monkey, has had classical music playing all day. My fiancee can only work to music she's never, ever heard before.

Just load up a playlist with only the music you can lose yourself in, and watch the workday disappear. If you're one of those people who doesn't like listening to music, enlighten me on how that works — closed-door office, white noise, what? I don't know how you guys do it.