Different things work for different people. Some people, despite being motivated, have sloppy, disorganized lives. I'm one of those people. There are a number

Different things work for different people. Some people, despite being motivated, have sloppy, disorganized lives. I'm one of those people. There are a number of things I want to do every week: I want to work on my startup, I want to read, I want to write code for fun, I want to blog, I want to spend time on Hacker News, I want to spend time with friends and family, etc. If I don't keep to a strict schedule, I end up sort of mushing everything together into one long, uninterrupted stress-fest where I try to do everything at once and end up half-assing everything. The problem is compounded when I work from home. There have been times when I've found myself sitting at the dinner table, SSHing into my VPS to do some maintenance while writing copy for my website simultaneously taking a phone call from a friend. Maintaining a strict schedule that I have to follow, no matter what, helps me stay organized and productive and on top of things. I also force myself to sit down with a notebook and pen every morning and review my tasks for the day. At the end of the day, I force myself to write down some observations and thoughts about the day's work in the same notebook. FWIW, I was highly influenced by Stephen King's On Writing. I used to think creativity and discipline didn't mix, but if King can write fiction with his five-hours-every-morning-come-what-may schedule then I can certainly write copy and build websites on my own schedule. This is, of course, what works for me. I've seen people with highly erratic lifestyles be much more productive than I can ever hope to be. YMMV.