It had never occurred to me before that all these people who run around with little appointment books packed with notes and scribbles who seemed to be efficient and on top of everything were actually the worst kind of procrastinators of all. They were so self-forgiving about their own procrastination that they developed entire systems to accommodate it. These daytimers and little black books were doing double duty on feeding people the rewards of accomplishment while still enabling procrastination!
Here's the way it works: Normally, if someone says "Hey Vaalin, can you run my alt through Mana Tombs" I will think to myself that I would rather sleep in a pile of angry hedgehogs. I will consider brushing my hand over the wireless adapter and lose connection for a while, or I'll say "I'm farming such-and-such right now and I was going to head to Dire Maul, um..." and really try to avoid this thing. But with the power of scheduling I have the ability to procrastinate as much as I want while still appearing responsible and organized. I can flip open my appointment book and say "Mana Tombs is definitely a possibility. How does Thursday the 22nd work for you? I have a slot open from 5-6pm." Suddenly the gift is there, an open spot on your obviously busy calendar, you've made a generous offering to the requester and the onus is on them to either refuse your generosity, or accept the scheduled run."Uh, I'll be 80 by then."
"Well, it pays to plan ahead."
Oh scheduling, how I love thee, let me count the ways!
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