Here's my humble checklist of what I think are the most important requirements for being the kind of programmer that can create something ultra-quickly.
* A stock of library code, built up over years so that simple and common tasks are already covered by a pre-written function or two.
* Be either the only programmer on the project or have your area clearly defined, and not be dependant on someone elses code that is still being produced.
* Have it clear in your head exactly what you are creating and how it is generally going to work.
* You have already "solved" any major technical hurdles that you know you are going to encounter.
* A quiet-ish place to work.
* A desire to actually create this program.
* Access to the internet to solve those niggly problems or to copy-and-paste code from websites.
* As a bonus, have a similar project that you previously created that can be easily subverted to the new task.
If you've got the above covered then you should be able to churn stuff out quickly, and then you can spend the rest of your time writing your own more interesting projects.
