Do you want to be more productive in the morning at the office?

Are you looking for some practical tips to help you get your head in the right place for the rest of the day, and help you accomplish tasks?

When it comes to boosting your productivity, the smallest of actions can speak volumes.

In this post, I offer five tips to help you be more productive in the morning at work.

Tidy your desk the evening before.

A tidy workspace allows you to hit the ground running in the morning. You don’t have to worry about moving stacks of papers and files, locating your materials or tools, or dealing with clutter. You can arrive at your workstation, ready to start your day without delay.

What are some ways you can tidy up your workspace or desk at the end of the day? Place papers back in their respective files, and place files in a file holder or drawer. Store office supplies in containers or drawers. Return books, manuals, and guides to their proper place in a bookcase or cabinet. Clean and store tools in their respective storage locations. Recycle and/or discard paper and other trash.

Basically, do anything you can to make your workstation clean and clutter free.

Get yourself settled in before working.

There’s great value in taking a few minutes to get yourself settled into your office or workplace. You allow your mind and body to transition between your commute and the work day to come. Plus, when you properly store and secure your personal belongings, you’ll have fewer items in your way as you work. You’ll also have one less thing to worry about when it comes to the safety of your belongings.

Take time to hang up your coat or jacket, store your purse, briefcase or bag in a cabinet or locker, stow your lunch in the refrigerator in the break room, use the restroom, and grab a cup of water, coffee or tea. These little routines may seem small and insignificant, but they are an easy way for you to keep things neat and orderly, so you can turn your attention to your work.

Trim your AM to-do list.

Whether your morning begins at 5:30, 7:30, or 9 A.M., it’s important to stay reasonable when it comes to your daily tasks. Your morning to-do list should be doable. Remember, you only have a handful of hours in order to get things done!

How many items are currently sitting on your morning to-do list? Do you want to polish off five, seven or more items? Are tasks too general in nature? Have you given yourself enough time to complete individual items? Is your list more of a wish list than a to-do list? If tasks are looking a bit too cramped or unreasonable, you may want to reschedule items for later in the day or work week.

Schedule a work power hour.

Want to make a solid dent in your work before noon? Try scheduling a work power hour for yourself. You’ll spend a full sixty minutes giving 100% of your attention to a task or assignment of your choice. You can schedule one or more power hours per day, per morning, as your schedule allows.

The process itself is quite simple. First, select the task you want to tackle and schedule it directly into your calendar. Second, remove or eliminate distractions in your immediate area. This includes logging off of email and social media profiles, silencing or setting your landline and cell phone to voicemail, closing out any unnecessary windows on your computer, and removing clutter from your workspace. Lastly, set a timer for one hour and get to work.

Avoid scheduling meetings first thing in the morning.

When it comes to scheduling meetings at the office, a little bit of breathing room can go a long way. Instead of scheduling your first meeting right on the dot at 9 A.M., give yourself some leeway. Try scheduling meetings sometime midmorning, say around 10 or 10:30 A.M. when possible.

Pushing back your meetings gives you time to get settled in (see above), take care of any urgent items, and make last-minute preparations for your gathering. Doing so also gives you time to mentally and physically recover from spending thirty minutes sitting in traffic or dealing with an otherwise harrowing commute. Plus, should you be unavoidably delayed during your commute, there’s a better chance you’ll make it on time to your meeting, as opposed to arriving late.

How about you? How do you want to increase your productivity levels in the morning? Which of these tips are you going to try out? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!