At the end of the day, when you got all the right gear, know how to do every stage of production....

.....there is still one thing that remains ellusive. FOCUS.

I have all sorts of fun with this one. Just recently I was going out of my head trying to stay focussed on just one idea!! arrrgghhhh!! My g/f was going to strangle me if i didn't get my head straight. hehehehe

So I worked out a way now that helps me.

I just find one sample or type of sound (ie: synth or percussion) that catches my ear. Then I build a track around it to show-case it as such.

It pays to have your own library of really cool loops and samples too. (the concept of having a sound you could listen to for hours on its own). When I am not in the mood for writing a full track or even when i wanna break from this head-space, I just sit down and make loops or samples and dump them in my library. This can be done with some friends around get drunk and have a laugh really :)
I did this recently with my drummer. we sat there most of a rainy day, smokin and drinkin, and cut up some recordings of him drumming into samples that i will use use later. Ended up being a very big day in the office ;)

I also use hardware as my primary source of sounds, so I can make loops and samples and keep them later for insertion into a track.

Then i focus on listening for a sound that really catches me at that time. Go hunting for a type of sound you really like or a feeling you wanna convey.

EG: recently i came across a really cool sound that was a real freaky analoge squelch. So I put that into the PC sequencer and started playing with it.

Several hours later I had passsed it into the sampler and found some percussion from my drum-machine that suited it and then found some synth lines that complemented it......BAM!! Done.

All the while just focussing on showcasing that one sound somehow that was complimentary.

hope that helps?