The single most important technique for making progress is to write ten words. Doesn’t matter if you’re badly stuck, or your day is completely jam-packed, or you’re away from your computer – carry a small paper notebook and write a sentence of description while you’re waiting on line at a coffee shop. I think of this as baiting a hook. Even if you have a few days in a row where nothing comes except those ten words, I find that as long as you have to think about the novel enough to write ten words, the chances are that more will come.
