You and your agenda. Who sets whom?

Seth published today a blog on the importance on settings an agenda and self-discipline. No doubt an agenda is a must and it has to be set by you (please read the blog where Seth speculates on the importance of creating a daily agenda and questions your agenda's sources and priorities).

Absolutely agree here with him and with many bloggers that have commented Seth's blog - without an agenda, created and written by you, the day risks to turn to trash - we need a  day's route to follow, monitor, and stick to.

At the same time I wonder how strong do you stick to the agenda? Do you plan 5 minute breaks for coffee with colleagues, to read blogs in the middle of the day, to smoke a cigarette? What is your flexibility and how tough is your agenda? Do you plan any backlash in the plan? Do you leave small time clearance between the events?

I think it's a very important factor of building a productive plan. Like bridges ought to have flexible connections to stand temperature tension we have to engineer time faults in the plan to achieve more and not overstrain ourselves. Our agenda is our plan that we should follow rather than obey to.  It still has to be productive and achievements-driven (don't mean planning to see three games per day or having a series of death match of Half-life in the middle of a working day). But I'm positive that we're more productive (in a long-run perspective) when we allow ourselves to enjoy our working days with small pleasant and relaxing deviations from the plan. An agenda is a plan to follow, not a vow. I prefer to enjoy my working days instead of putting shame on myself for "unproductive" activities.

How do you cope with tough agendas and what flexibility do build into the plan?

Technorati tags: productivity, gtd, agenda