Top 18 tips (yes 18) on how to get and stay productive

Do you ever find that your day runs away from you? Here are some tips on getting and staying productive.

1. Start your day with at least 30 minutes of exercise.

2. Turn off all technology for 60 minutes a day and focus on doing your most important work.

3. Turn your Blackberry/Smartphone to silence. It steals your focus and creates unecessary interuptions.

4. Don't check your email first thing in the morning.

5. Turn all your electronic notifications off.

6. Take one day a week as a complete recovery day, to refuel and regenerate (that means no email, no phone calls and zero work). You need full recovery one day a week otherwise you'll start depleting your capabilities.

7. The data says workers are interrupted every 11 minutes. Distractions destroy productivity. Learn to protect your time and say no to interruptions.

8. Schedule every day of your week even Sunday morning. A plan relieves you of the torment of choice (said novelist Saul Bellow). It restores focus and provides energy. Organization is the key to productivity.

9. Work in blocks of time. Creative geniuses all had 2 things in common: when they worked they were fully engaged and when they worked, they worked with this deep concentration for long periods of time. Rare in this world of entrepreneurs who can't sit still.

10. Drink a liter of water early every morning. We wake up dehydrated. The most precious asset of an entrepreneur isn't time - it's energy. Water restores it.

11. Don't answer your phone every time it rings.

12. Invest in your professional development so you bring more value to the hours you work. Keep it fresh.

13. Avoid gossip and time thieves.

15. Keep a "Stop Doing List".

16. Get up early. 5 am....6 am... be productive before most people are out of bed.

17. Have in office days and out of office days. The inertia of the road is good but if you do it everyday it interrupts your opportunity to focus on in office activities.

18. Do the things you hate to do first thing in the morning. Just get them done and over with. Then they won't cloud your subconscious all day

It's challenging to be 100% productive every day but just like other commitments in life, you take your best run at it!