Attitude and preparation are the keys to a more enjoyable, productive workday.

How do you feel at the start of most workdays? Are you stimulated, exhilarated, in a state of flow? If you’re one of the charmed few who greets each day from that place, chances are you not only have a positive mind-set, you’re also a highly valued employee.

“There’s an old saying, ‘It’s your attitude more than your aptitude that determines your altitude,’ ” says Brian Tracy, author of TurboCoach: A Powerful System for Achieving Breakthrough Career Success. “Attitude is the one thing you can’t hide. Positive people tend to be far more productive. They’re more rapidly promoted and have far greater opportunities in their careers than negative people.”

The rule goes both ways, he adds—productive people tend to be happier on the job.

Yet, most people tend to fritter away their work hours. Tracy cites a recent survey that found at least 50 percent of time at work is spent on nonwork activities, such as idle chitchat with coworkers, surfing the Internet, reading the newspaper, or taking coffee or lunch breaks.

To lay the foundation for a more positive, fruitful attitude and workday, Tracy suggests these simple steps:

1. Develop clear goals and write them down. The very act of putting your goals on paper makes you 10 times more likely to achieve them, Tracy claims.

   “Writing things out activates your mental powers,” he says.

2. Write a clear action plan. Start the day off with a todo list, then write in new tasks as they arise. If you’re serious about your career, the most important thing you can do is make a list of everything you plan to-do before the day begins.

   “You’ll boost your productivity by about 25 percent the day you start working from a list,” says Tracy.

3. Set your priorities. List in hand, ask yourself: If I were called out of town for a month and had to do just one thing on my list before leaving, what would it be? Circle that item. Then ask yourself what would be numbers 2 and 3 on the list. Those are your most important tasks for the day.
4. Concentrate and eliminate distractions.

   “It can take tremendous discipline and self-control to concentrate on your tasks, but your future depends on it,” says Tracy. His solution to distraction? Repeat to yourself emphatically, “Back to work, back to work”—doing so will propel you back to your tasks.

   The biggest distractions are the people around you. When a coworker tries to draw you into idle conversation, a polite response is: “I’d love to talk with you later, but right now I’ve got to get back to work.”

5. Focus on tasks of value. Make a list of everything you do over the course of a month and examine it; three things should pop out at you that account for 90 percent of the value you produce in your job.

Don’t stop there; now go to your boss with your results and say, “This is what I think I’ve been hired to do, but I need you to organize these three things according to your priorities.”

Above all, be solution-oriented, Tracy stresses. Interruptions to your workday will often be in the form of unanticipated problems, and most people tend to focus on what went wrong and who’s to blame.

“Being solution-oriented makes you a more positive, productive person,” Tracy says. “All people who are unhappy on the job are problemoriented. All successful managers are solution-oriented.”

Polly Turner spoke with Brian Tracy, author of TurboCoach: A Powerful System for Achieving Breakthrough Career Success, New York: Amacom, 2005, $24.

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