Frederick Terman of Stanford University, widely considered one of Silicon Valley fathers, used a simple and productive method to write his books:

Terman never took a sabbatical to write this or any other textbook. Instead, he set himself the deceptively easy goal of writing one page a day, and actually managed to turn out a shelf full of books that way. (Understanding Silicon Valley, Chapter 3).

The Clockwork Muse by  Eviatar Zerubavel describes a similar commitment device in great detail.

 tags: psychology, control, creativity