Start with yourself. If you want to increase the productivity of your business, there is no better place to start than with your own workday. Making yourself more productive will not only be a boost to your company, it will also teach you techniques that you can pass on to your employees.

With open-ended tasks or projects, setting a self-imposed deadline can provide motivation to work harder. It works even better if you inform other people of your self-imposed deadline, as this will make you more accountable for sticking to it.

Amber Rosenberg is an International Coach Federation accredited Professional Certified Coach (PCC) based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has over 20 years of coaching experience and a background in corporations, tech companies and nonprofits. Amber has trained with the Coaches Training Institute and is a member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

Studies show that taking short, regular breaks helps to maintain focus and to prevent a decline in performance.Even briefly switching your attention to another task for a minute or two a few times an hour can help to maintain focus over the longterm.

If a task comes up that you can complete in 2 minutes or less, do it immediately. It will take less time than coming back to it later, and it will provide a brief break that will make you more focused when you return to the task at hand.

E-mail, to-do lists, brainstorming, and document review are great tasks to get done whenever you find yourself with “bonus” time, whether it’s during your commute or while in the waiting room at your doctor’s office.

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Commit to multiple drafts of everything. All your work product – not just writing – should be done in multiple “drafts” instead of wasting time trying to make it perfect the first time around. Hammer out something that works and have someone else look at it, or come back to it later with a fresh mind. You’ll find you can complete projects much more quickly if you do them in four or five “drafts” than if you try to get it just right the first time.