Via Lifehacker, Steve Pavlina explains scaffolding as a means to establishing productivity habits.
A personal productivity scaffold is like wearing braces. It’s a way to redirect your time and energy back onto the “straight” course and away from the crooked one. Once you’ve set it up, it’s fairly easy to maintain, although you may still regard it as a small sacrifice.
Perhaps the most important function your scaffolding must perform is keeping your attention focused on what you want and off of what you don’t want.