<a href="https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_personal_productivity.html" rel="nofollow">https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_personal_productivity.html</a><p>"By not keeping a schedule, I mean: refuse to commit to meetings, appointments, or activities at any set time in any future day.<p>As a result, you can always work on whatever is most important or most interesting, at any time.<p>Want to spend all day writing a research report? Do it!<p>Want to spend all day coding? Do it!<p>Want to spend all day at the cafe down the street reading a book on personal productivity? Do it!<p>When someone emails or calls to say, "Let's meet on Tuesday at 3", the appropriate response is: "I'm not keeping a schedule for 2007, so I can't commit to that, but give me a call on Tuesday at 2:45 and if I'm available, I'll meet with you."<p>Or, if it's important, say, "You know what, let's meet right now."<p>Clearly this only works if you can get away with it. If you have a structured job, a structured job environment, or you're a CEO, it will be hard to pull off.<p>But if you can do it, it's really liberating, and will lead to far higher productivity than almost any other tactic you can try.<p>This idea comes from a wonderful book called A Perfect Mess, which explains how not keeping a schedule has been key to Arnold Schwarzenegger's success as a movie star, politician, and businessman over the last 20 years."