How to start an academic career after 5-6 years in industry, without an undergraduate degree? As an undergraduate, I wasted a ridiculous amount of time due to a combination of being distracted by part-time work, lack of focus, not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, and just plain being stupid and lazy.  Several times I tried to "get it together" but by then it was too late as my grades were ridiculously low (mostly around 0) and I could never have gotten into grad school anyway.

Eventually I dropped out as I realized I wasn't getting anywhere.  I had a lot of awards from things like programming competitions, so I used that to get some decent jobs.  My intention was that I would work for a few years, clear my head, save up some money, and go back later.  

Well, later is here.  After 5-6 years work experience doing mind-numbingly boring menial programming jobs, I applied for and got accepted into a master's program at a fairly respected university.  It's only a 1-year program, but if it goes well I'd definitely consider applying for a PhD.

Obviously it's very important to me that I do things right this time around, so my main questions are:


Will the total lack of a BSc degree be a problem when applying for a PhD program?
I spent the last half a decade mostly doing tasks which required no creativity or deep thought.  Sometimes I feel like my mind is like an ex-boxer who has been sitting on a sofa eating KFC and donuts all day for 5 years.. completely out of shape!  How do I get the gears spinning smoothly again?
I need a plan for making the transition into "research" mode.  To be honest when I was at university I never paid attention to what any of my friends were doing when they were reading papers so I have no idea how the whole thing works.  e.g. Do I start by making friends with some professors?  Should I volunteer to be a TA?
At what point will I be able to apply for a PhD?




Master's degree will be in Computer Science.

Several people have expressed doubts about the legitimacy of a degree program that gives you a 1-year master's degree with no undergraduate degree.  I just want to clarify that it's not some "IT shop under the railway bridge" giving the degree, it is a very respected university.  It's a 1-year degree because masters programs are generally one year in the UK.  Also, I didn't just walk in with nothing.  I demonstrated in my interview that I had knowledge in CS topics, I had a couple published papers, as well as half a dozen international awards from my time as an undergrad, and work experience from top-tier Fortune 100 companies; I just never finished my degree.
As a current PhD student, my advice is to first ask yourself several questions before you decide that you want to apply to do a PhD.
First, why do you want to apply for a PhD program?
For some, the PhD is a stepping stone to a tenure-track job in academia.
For others, the PhD is seen as a mind-enriching experience, even though the student wants to work in industry.
For some industrial research jobs, having a PhD in a related field is a requirement before they will even consider hiring you for that job.
Second, what level of PhD program are you willing to accept?
There are also different levels of PhD programs.
If you want to get into a good PhD program (MIT, CMU, Stanford, etc),
you could take a look at current students of those programs and look at their CVs.
Usually, these students would have graduated from a top school with a good GPA,
and have had some undergrad research experience and maybe even a publication or two.
If you want to get a job in academia, you usually would have to graduate from a good PhD program.
If you only want to do a PhD to get a job in academia,
it may not be worth your while to get a PhD from a less reputable school.
However, this is a personal decision based on what is important to you.
Finally, are you both competent and interested in doing research in computer science?
The way that most people realize that they want to do research
is that they have some sort of undergraduate research experience,
or maybe even do a Master's.
Conclusion
If you think that you would want to get into a good PhD program in computer science,
you should first get a BSc in a good school,
and try to obtain some research experience while you are studying
in order to get a feel for what research is like and whether you are able to do it and whether you really like it.
I think that getting a BSc in a good school would probably be helpful in your career development
even if you decide not to get a PhD.
At the end of the day, you make your own decisions and deal with the consequences.
Good luck!
In response to OP's edits
A couple of thoughts:

You didn't mention in your original question that you had several published papers.
If you have some research experience and published papers, that definitely helps your PhD application.
I don't have personal experience being on an admission committee.
If you were able to meet someone on the admission committee of a university PhD program which you were interested in,
you could ask him/her how they would evaluate your application.
Since it is very rare for a PhD student not to have a BSc,
I don't know how open they would be to accepting you as a student.
Could you go back to the university which you dropped out of and finish of your degree in a year or two, by just completing missing requirements?
From what I understand, most master's degrees are based on course-work, and have no research component.
In that case, doing an MSc may not prepare you to do research as a PhD student.
On the other hand, if you were able to do a perhaps 2-year MSc which includes research with an adviser/supervisor,
this could be a great stepping stone into a good PhD program.