Marc Andreesen on Productivity P0rn

While he was an undergraduate the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Marc Andreesen co-wrote the first widely used WWW browser - Mosaic. He later went on to found Netscape, sending seismic waves through Microsoft and resulting in a far reaching reorganization overseen by Bill Gates himself.

These days he works at social networking startup Ning and writes an excellent blog - pmarca - which I've been enjoying since its inception this month.

In a particularly interesting post, Andreesen dwells on productivity p0rn.

His most important tip? Don't keep a schedule. "...refuse to commit to meetings, appointments, or activities at any set time in any future day."

Another that will give pause to your intuition is what is called Structured Procrastination: "never fight the tendency to procrastinate -- instead, you should use it to your advantage in order to get other things done."

The rest of the list:

• Keep three and only three lists: a Todo List, a Watch List, and a Later List


• Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3x5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day


• Use the back of that 3x5 card as your Anti-Todo List


• Do email exactly twice a day


• Optimize email processing


• Don't answer the phone


• Hide in an IPod


• Start the day with a real, sit-down breakfast


• Only agree to new commitments when both your head and your heart say yes


• Do something you love