Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule
I love this essay. Paul Graham distinguishes between the "maker's schedule" and the "manager's schedule" and talks about the dilemma between offending someone or losing half a day's work. Fits me perfectly, especially since some of my meetings are half a mile away. His point about the difficulty of switching modes is right on: "For someone on the maker's schedule, having a meeting is like throwing an exception. It doesn't merely cause you to switch from one task to another; it changes the mode in which you work."