We all wish we had a little more free time in our day. In order to free up some time for yourself, you have to find ways to get your work done quickly, and effectively. Keeping these productivity tips in mind will help you to get your work done efficiently, so that you can free up more time.

Use Instant Messaging

Whenever possible, try to replace phone calls and emails with instant messages. By IMing someone rather than calling them, or emailing them, you are more likely to get a quick and simple response to your question. When you call someone on the phone, you’re expected to exchange pleasantries, and make small talk. When you email someone, they won’t necessarily answer you right away. When you IM someone, a short impersonal message is perfectly acceptable, and IM’s convey a sense of urgency, making it more likely that you’ll get an immediate response.

Cut Back On Meetings

Meetings can be a severe drain on time. If you’re the one organizing the meetings, see if you can set up an online meeting using chat software. That way, your guests won’t have to spend time traveling to the meeting location. If you’re attending a lot of meetings, see which ones you can skip, and which you can’t. If you find yourself traveling to a lot of mandatory meetings, ask whoever is organizing them if they have considered holding online meetings.

Share Information Efficiently

Waiting for a client or coworker to send you a document can take up a lot of your time. Instead of having them email you when they’re ready, just have them save the document to a shared file hosting service. If you’re in the same office, there are a lot of options for sharing individual folders on a single PC across the entire network. If you are in different locations, there are a number of document hosting services like Google Documents that allow you to share your files with users anywhere in the world. Either way, you and your coworkers or clients can all access the same files, and make changes whenever necessary without having to take the time to send out a new version of the file. Sharing files with others in this manner will save you more time than you realize.

Taking small steps like the ones above will help you to streamline your day. If you can find more efficient ways to get your work done, you can free up more time in your day for other things.

Throughout the course of a day, there are many things that might keep you from getting things done. Creating awareness of what constitutes unnecessary actions is important because these seemingly innocent interruptions, are usually subtle unconscious avoidance tactics. If you want to manage your time, and avoid losing it to most of these common distractions, the following are a few examples of some and a few ideas of how to get past them.

I’ll get started after I get a drink.

The thinking here is actually kind of solid. You make the decision to get a drink before you start working so that you won’t have to gt up while you’re working, and break your productivity flow. In actuality, you’re just putting off getting started on the next task you have to do. Instead of getting the drink before you get started, you should reward yourself for finishing a task by getting that drink. It might be a small thing, but getting that drink is something to look forward to once you’ve completed your work. If you have a goal to work toward, your work will go by much faster, and you’ll make your way to that goal much quicker.

I’ll get more done tomorrow.

It’s easy to put things off until tomorrow when you feel overwhelmed. Unfortunately, when tomorrow gets here, you’re going to have to deal with all of tomorrow’s tasks, plus the ones you pushed back from today. At the beginning of each day, make a list of tasks that you need to finish that day. Keep checking the list throughout the day, and don’t let yourself stop working until it’s all done with. That way, you’ll be able to start fresh tomorrow, and you’ll get more done each and every day.

There are too many interruptions!

Funny, how we can come up with just about anything, isn’t it? But… If you really feel like you can’t get anything done because of all of the interruptions you face in a day, there’s a good chance you can do something about that. There are always going to be interruptions you can’t avoid, but there’s probably quite a few you can avoid if you put your mind to it. Think about the type of things that break up your work flow.

If you’re getting a lot of non-work-related instant messages, consider signing out of your chat client. If you absolutely have to be logged in for work purposes, set up a separate account for personal chats, and let your friends and family know not to IM you unless you’re signed in under the friends and family account. That’s just one example. There are a lot of interruptions you can avoid if you put your mind to it

If you keep yourself on a schedule, and make a conscious, concerted effort to manage your time properly, you can be more productive. Keep these tips in mind, and your productivity will increase in no time.