I find one meeting can sometimes affect a whole day. A meeting commonly blows at least half a day, by breaking up a morning or afternoon. But in addition there's sometimes a cascading effect. If I know the afternoon is going to be broken up, I'm slightly less likely to start something ambitious in the morning. I know this may sound oversensitive, but if you're a maker, think of your own case. Don't your spirits rise at the thought of having an entire day free to work, with no appointments at all? Well, that means your spirits are correspondingly depressed when you don't. And ambitious projects are by definition close to the limits of your capacity. A small decrease in morale is enough to kill them off.

This resonates with me deeply.

As a freelancer, I get lots of requests to "grab coffee" (as Graham describes) with folks who are just interested in seeing if working together is a possibility. Whenever that happens, my heart sinks. If I'm on deadline or deep in a programming project, grabbing coffee midday with someone I don't know and might not have any good business reason to talk to changes the tenor of the entire day. When I can, I usually I turn down these types of speculative meetings because the costs are too high--but I always feel bad about it, and never know how to word my response. (Generally I say, "Sorry I'm just too busy.")

But the fact is that creative types do have to go to meetings. If you can control when those meetings happen, Graham suggests putting aside end-of-day office hours, which don't split the day in half. I'd add that breakfast or early morning coffee meetings are also a good alternative.

Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule [Paul Graham]

At my previous job, I once took on a temporary acting communications director role. All of a sudden, I had eight people reporting to me. To keep impromptu meetings short, I instituted Dance Meetings. By playing some funk at low levels through my computer speakers, I'd encourage my colleagues to dance. We'd dance for the duration of the song as we discussed their projects, challenges, personal troubles, etc. The benefits were immediately clear.

• Meetings were kept to about 5 minutes, maximum 10 for an extended James Brown tune.
• Self-conscious people were intimidated and didn't drop in for impromptu meetings as often.
• The dancing immediately put us in a good mood—so much so that even people with major complaints always left my office with a smile.
• My colleagues developed an appreciation for the Meters, Earth, Wind& Fire, and James Brown.
• It was a lovely surreal bonding moment that boosted morale within my team.

Honestly, I couldn't see this happening at ANY of the offices I've ever worked in--and I'd be one of the shy ones who just never showed up--but just the idea of people dancing while updating their supervisor about work projects makes me smile. Cue the overbite!