Writer's... LEGO?

I don't quite have writer's block. But it feels as though, instead of one gigantic mental block that's preventing me from my work, it's a bunch of smaller lego pieces that are preventing me from moving to point A to point B (where point B is me finishing my dissertation proposal.)

Luckily, I went to a writer's bootcamp workshop series where we talked about our various legos and tips/tricks to push past these blocks. (As a side note, I was comforted to realize that many of my peers and I use the same tactic of cleaning our kitchens and bathrooms when we are trying to avoid writing.) Part of pushing past the blocks was recognizing our productivity habits, our routines, and also how we measure success with our writing (i.e. by page limit, by word count, by section, etc.) 

And for me, I realized that I have been socialized to only write when I have a deadline— specifically, when the deadline is imposed by a conference proposal/paper due date, or a class assignment. If that is the case (which it is), I actually don't really know how I measure success with my writing (which is probably a larger indication of how I do not know how to measure success within academia...) So while this bootcamp is a way for me to create artificial deadlines (and not solve the problem), I think it'll also help deconstruct some habits with my writing and help me put away some of the lego blocks?