Writer's Block

Many articles, books and blog entries are written on the topic. Anyone who has written or writes out of habit, for assignment, pleasure or vocation, has probably experienced the phenomenon. That's me right now. Stuck in an uninspired rut. The worst part for me is that I realize the best way for me to recuperate is often to write a large quantity of garbage I end up throwing out and eventually I will stumble upon something profound.

The economist in me things that with concepts such as scarcity, limited resources, and how little time there is in a day, week, lifetime, that the composition of quantity over quality is wasteful and I should adopt new coping mechanisms. Any thoughts on how to best proceed? What has worked for you and helped hone your writing?