What are some smart strategies for maximising your interest income?

I get the feeling the smartest way to live off interest is have a kind of churning income rather than a fixed sum you have in your savings. For example you sell shares or an investment property at a profit and have to pay capital gains. You time it so that you can put the profit in the bank or (even an offset account) and collect the (or reduce the payable) interest until it's tax time. If you just have a fixed amount of savings although you collect interest you also lose out due to inflation whereas if it's more of a churning income inflation isn't such an issue.