keep your creative energy up and stay focused. Something as simple as a meeting scheduled

here will break your afternoon into two pieces which are both too small to do anything creative

in and the rest of your day is blown. When you know your entire day is free, you soar

like a creative eagle, yet people are constantly asking to get things scheduled in even when

those meetings are not important to what you are creating. What you need to do is plan

your day like a maker. You see, managers rule the world and they go from meeting to meeting

no sweat. They can meet Jim for coffee just to connect without ruining their productivity.

And while managers are usually your boss and your clients, embracing the manager's schedule

is a disaster for makers. Makers need to block chunks of time big enough to do real creative

work. So tell people you only meet at certain times of the day that you choose and that

it's in their best interest that you have time to create.