5 Tips to Get the Most out of Your Work Day

In this digital age, businesses are continuously evolving as technology rapidly transforms.

What this means to you is that expectations for your work productivity are rapidly increasing, too.

With all the professional and personal demands placed on us, it is more important now than ever, to get work goals and tasks accomplished while at work, so that personal goals can be achieved and chores can be completed at home.

Having worked in several professional offices and now from home, I have learned that regardless of the location, the same tips apply to getting the most out of your day.

However, for these tips to work, a commitment has to be made to adopt more successful methods that increase productivity, while abandoning toxic work habits.

These are my 5 Tips to Get the Most out of Your Work Day:

1. Set Priorities - First thing in the morning, determine your top 3 priorities for the day, tackle them one at a time and do not be deterred.

When someone calls urgently needing help with something they chose not to take care of until the last-minute, my personal challenge is to stay focused on my priorities and remember this saying,

"A lack of planning on your part, does not constitute an emergency on my part."

I have set priorities that must be completed for my world (work, family, finances, fun) to remain balanced. I can't let out-of-control issues that are not my responsibility destroy my productivity and cause me and those who depend on me to get off track.

While I am generally the person who most wants to help out, sometimes I have to delicately suggest a better time and place where I can concentrate with them on their dilemma.

2. Get Communication Under Control - These are good rules of thumb that will help keep you focused throughout the day:

- After setting your priorities, spend the next 30 minutes returning important calls, setting up meetings, and answering emails.

- If you have to leave a message, give them as much detail as possible so that they can continue moving forward with their task. Also provide them with a time frame of when to call you back with questions.

- Do not answer the phone every time it rings. Unless the call is an emergency or is pertinent to your top priority, let it roll to voice mail until you have time to properly address the issue. You will find that people are often asking for something that they could figure out on their own, anyway.

- Designate a couple of times a day that you will check voice mail and email. Make people aware of these times so that expectations are properly set. Checking email randomly and often throughout the day is one of the biggest killers of productivity.

- Avoid all non-work related visits, emails, texts, calls, and social media updates until you are on a lunch break or are headed home. This includes co-workers stopping by to chat... suggest that you go to lunch together or grab drinks after work, instead.

3. Make You and Your Space Conducive to Success - The more professional you both are, the more likely you will achieve your goals.

Keep the door closed or at the very least, your back to the opening, to deter visitors.

- Clear your desk of all papers, except for the top 3 priorities that you are working on that day.

- Keep an alarm clock that is set to help you check the status of your progress throughout the day.

- Keep sources of noise at bay. While some people work better with background music, commercials often break in-the-zone concentration, resulting in great thoughts that were on the verge of discovery being lost forever. Also, put your office and cell phones on silent and turn off the email notification on your computer.

- Eliminate snack foods and decorative items that make you feel comfortable and at home. This is the time to feel like you are on a mission, which does not include sugar highs and lows or flickering candles that make you want to cuddle up with a good book on the sofa.

- Have stress release products nearby, such as stress-balls and aromatherapy scents. These will sub-consciously help you remain calm and in control without putting you in a state of complete relaxation.

- Keep your personal attire and behavior professional, too. I really like the saying, "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have." This includes language, remarks, and facial expressions, as well.

4. Control Your Meetings - These rules are vital to making those potential time-wasters be as concise and effective as possible:

- Set firm meeting times - It is important to respect your colleague's time... start when the schedule says to start, stop when your alarm goes off, and those that are late will learn not to be in the future. Any further discussions need to be taken off-line or discussed at a future time.

- Have a set agenda and do not deviate from it - To make sure that you have an effective meeting, send out a draft agenda a week before and ask for recommended topics for discussion. If someone did not get their topic on the agenda, then it must be addressed at a different time, without regard to the fact that all the right people may be in the room at that moment. If they'd like, they can try to pull together a last-minute meeting after yours is over.

- If the meeting is a presentation, first present, then take questions. Nothing is more frustrating than constantly repeating yourself by saying, "I will address that in a minute." Tell attendees upfront that questions will be taken after the presentation and that you have provided a notepad and pencil in each seat for note-taking.

- Do not repeat topics of discussion or comments made for stragglers. It is their responsibility to get the information on their own without disrupting you... again.

- Do not laugh along with off-handed remarks from the office clown or acknowledge other unnecessary interruptions. Set the tone in the beginning that you understand that everyone is very busy and you'd like to do what you can to get them back to their priorities.

- Do not have drinks, snacks and other party favors available - get in, get out and get on with your day.

- Be the office favorite... just don't schedule a meeting, if you can avoid it.

5. Get to Work Early and Take Breaks Hourly - People are generally most productive early in the morning when the office is quiet and after breaks, when they have had a few minutes to clear their minds. Take a 5 minute break every hour, making sure you return to your priorities on time.

These are 5 tips that I hope help you get the most out of your work day, too!

Here's to another Inspired Minute!