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Sarah’s team was facing a team productivity crisis. She was responsible for a big launch event at an upcoming trade show: colleagues to wrangle, suppliers to manage, finances to sort out, floor space to book and a thousand other things to do.

Most people don’t want to be managers. Only one in three American workers actually aspires to a leadership role and only seven percent want to get into the boardroom, according to a recent survey. Being a manage is no picnic. But perhaps it would be more palatable if people could learn to take a holiday at work.

In 2003, Nicholas Carr, author of the Rough Type blog, asked the provocative question: “Does IT matter?” His article appeared in the prestigious Harvard Business Review. It was a closely argued, well-written article, which triggered what The Economist called “an existentialist debate” in the IT industry.

Procrastination is a big problem for writers. The Economist takes a view, based on research and economic theory: New-year irresolution.

What seems to work is pre-commitment. Homer tells the story of Ulysses. He wanted to hear the sirens’ song but wanted to avoid being lured to his death by it, so he tied himself to the mast of his ship. (The other sailors had wax in their ears.)

But how can we do this in our everyday life?