I freelance and work on own projects from home and my daily routine is in a complete disarray. Last day (before I slept the last time), I was awake for 30 hours working and because of that, today I felt exhausted even after a good sleep. So it seems that there wasn't any net gain by working for long, rather a loss due to the messed up circadian rhythm, other possible repercussions on health in the long run, etc. Yet I cannot control myself when I get some good idea and feel like completing it before the enthusiasm dries out (sometimes, rightly so). I think I could more than double my productivity just by sticking to a routine and consistently working. But whenever I try to get into a schedule, I always end up slipping away after few days. All it takes is some interesting content on HN/reddit or an addictive TV_show/movie/game at night to spoil it. All of it is easily accessible, just a couple of clicks away from your IDE/browser that you use for work. I've even developed the muscle memory to hit "ctrl+t, re (for reddit), enter" and caught myself doing that without a conscious decision of browsing reddit whenever I hit a roadblock while programming.<p>"And why the hell not? Who do you have to answer to at 8'o clock in the morning?", the brain rationalizes.<p>Also, I've non-24-hour sleep–wake disorder [0]. My normal day consists of 25.5 hours on average and I have to end up resetting my the cycle every 9-10 days which entirely wastes the next couple of days. I suspect it has developed after years of being out of a permanent schedule.<p>I'd like to hear if you face similar challenges and how you manage/maintain your daily schedule or your attempts at it. I'm sorry if this post came out like a rant.<p>[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-24-hour_sleep%E2%80%93wake_disorder