• In the past, our jobs were pretty self-evident. Our agrarian workplace told us specifically what needed to be done: milk the cows, plow the fields, and harvest the fields.
• Then, our industrial society was one in which a worker stayed at the same job for a lifetime knowing the often mundane requirements and leaving with a gold watch and a pension.
• In the technological and knowledge age of today, workers have ever-changing goals, products, partners, customers, markets, technologies, and owners. This keeps our jobs in flux and it changes our roles, and responsibilities. The worker of today must find ways to put their minds in a place where flexibility and adaptability are the norm.
• In our workplace today, our job boundaries have no limits. This lack of boundaries can create more work for us. This means that many of the things we attempt to achieve right now, even if we had the rest of our lives to try, we would not be able to complete. Most organizations require communication with many divisions, cooperation, and involvement. The 21st century jobs are made up of dozens or even hundreds of e-mails a day, complaints, or orders. There are few people who can expect to maintain some predetermined to-do list, that the first telephone call or interruption from their boss won’t totally undo.

Can you be a person who has an overwhelming number of things to do and still function productively with a clear head and a clear sense of relaxed control? What are the tools needed when your body is at work but your mind is on other matters. In order to work at top levels of effectiveness and efficiency, some prevention work is required.

• Focus – Positive imagery. The things that we focus our mind on affect how we perceive and think about those things. Thinking about these things in a positive way helps us achieve a sense of relaxed control. When you focus on something, say a vacation you are planning or a meeting you are about to enter, an image comes to mind and that focus creates ideas and thought patterns. If you are producing negative images, those images will be reflected in how we behave and respond.
• Write things down – Make two to-do lists. The first should include everything that you need to get done soon. Make a comprehensive list of short-medium, and long-term projects and work. Factor in disruptions, unexpected meetings, and phone calls. Make tasks as specific as possible and assign a time you plan to devote to them. Print the lists on brightly colored paper to keep it from getting lost.
• Brainstorm actions and outcomes – This is problem-solving and decision-making at its finest. There is a saying,“Crazy behavior is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results.” What are some new options to the problems that you continually find yourself stuck in? Make time to brainstorm the numerous options you have for the continual problems that may be affecting your work and life. Whether work-related or a family problem, including other members is useful so that you can brainstorm things you may never have thought about if done alone. Remember that in brainstorming, all options and ideas are open. No critiquing at the time of brainstorming. That actually defeats the purpose of brainstorming in that others will feel stifled and resentful if critiqued concerning their ideas.
• Make choices – Think long-term. What will the consequences be for each of the options? What will the decision produce? These are questions to be addressed by the group or individually.
• Review Options – At the time of deciding the option to be utilized, pick a time to return to the decision made and review how it can be improved, or go back to the drawing board to determine a better course of action. Often during the time that you have been living with the decision that was made, you find some holes in the decision that you did not anticipate. These are opportunities to improve on the action that was taken.

• Start your day on the right foot. Prepare for each and every day expecting to have some distractions, interruptions, and problems. The way you begin your workday sets the tone for the rest of the day.
• Limit your work-starting routine to 15 minutes. That is, don’t spend more than 15 minutes settling in. This includes getting coffee, reading e-mails, checking messages, or looking at newspapers. Jump into the important work quickly and read the non-essential things after you’ve covered lots of ground.
• Take a few moments during the day to assess the day’s emotional challenges. In addition to your “to do” lists, have a “be prepared for” list. These challenges should include challenging phone calls and unexpected assignments from the boss.