Top 7 Steps To A High Energy Work Day

All of life is energy. Every successful sale is a transfer of positive energy. Every creative product or project is the result of a right energy mix. Whatever takes away from your energy is bad. Whatever increases energy is good. Improve your energy and you increase the quality of who you are. That increases the quality of everything around you. You don’t have to believe me. Experiment!

1. Create Reserve In Your Space
   
   Reserve always improves energy -­ a healthy savings account, lots of supportive relationships, several opportunities for other positions being offered -­ what a feeling! The same principle works with space. "Clear the clutter" isn’t just a professional organizer’s mantra. It’s a strategy to improve performance and effectiveness.
   
   Take the old stuff off the walls. Clear the floor. Make the window a "no-junk" zone. Make the office look like you just moved in.
   
   If you’re sick and you can’t seem to get well, go to a doctor. If you can’t bring yourself to let go of stuff, hire a professional organizer. Remember, the primary qualification is "ruthless."
   
   
2. Get The Phone Off Your Desk
   
   Worst case -­ put it off to the side at the back end of the return. Best case -­ on the credenza behind you. Having the phone in your line of sight drains your energy with its subconscious message "Call somebody!" And when you have to turn around to answer it, you aren’t distracted by what’s on your desk. Clarified attention makes for clarified energy.
   
   
3. The Cure For Piles Is "Preparation H"
   
   The "H" stands for hanging files. Get a cardboard file box, fill it with hanging folders, and clear every pile in your office.
   
   Get it all into a folder. Label as you go. Saving an article? You don’t need the whole magazine. Tear the article out (be sure to check for "continued on page ____" and tear that page out too.)
   
   Don’t worry about how to label folders. Make it up as you go. Consider it "jazz organization." Just get every piece of paper in a folder.
   
   
4. Make And Use A Daily Activity File
   
   More hanging folders -- this time in your desk drawer at your fingertips. Label them 1 to 31. Put every piece of paper in the day that requires action. Can’t decide on that convention registration? Put it in the folder that’s two days prior to when you can still register with a discount.
   
   Waiting for the paperless office? Forget it. You’ve been told to handle any piece of paper only once. Forget that ­- it’s too much pressure. Pressure drains energy. If you can’t decide on a disposition, put a checkmark on the top of the paper and put it in the 1 to 31 file for several days later. Three checkmarks means throw it away.
   
   Move the stuff from the cardboard work file into the 1 to 31 folders. Start each day with a review of that day’s folder.
   
   
5. Eliminate Attending Every Possible Meeting
   
   Nothing eats up energy more than 20 minutes of decisions made in three hours! Eighty-five percent of meetings are unnecessary and the other 15% are too long! Beg off, ask to be excluded, volunteer to do something else during the meeting -­ do whatever it takes to avoid being in meetings. When you have to be in one, request an agenda and an expected end time. Then let it be known you’ll have to leave early.
   
   
6. Identify Your Roles and Your Circle Of Ten
   
   Now that everything around you is clear, let’s clear everything in you.
   
   Energy soars when you are moved to action by "who" rather than "what." Who are you? I am a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a company owner, a personal coach. What are the roles you fill? And who are the characters related to each role? Identify the Top Ten People.
   
   It’s simple to discover (A)who you are, and (B)who the Top Ten Most Important People in your life are. Tasks, projects, priorities, involvements will take on a new clarity.
   
   
7. Change Your Physiology
   
   The most simple and easiest way to increase energy is physical:
   
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   • Stand up
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   • Reach your hands up toward the ceiling and down toward the floor
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   • Slowly turn your head from shoulder to shoulder
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   • Lift your shoulders up toward your ears then down again
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   • Wiggle your toes and fingers
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   • Sit back down
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   It’s about 90 seconds that will make a positive change in the flow of the day.

Joe Marino is a Corporate Educator, Personal Success Tele-Coach, and publisher of LifeCanBeGood NEWS E-zine. His clients are professionals who learn to "have the courage to do less and earn more."

You can visit his Web Site at [http://www.LifeCanBeGood.com], call him by telephone at (904) 247-4065 or e-mail him at