Is this a familiar situation for you: you head into the office a couple hours early and actually get more work done in those two hours than you often do in your eight-hour workday? Or, you work from home one day and find your productivity doubled?

Quite often there’s something about work that makes it hard to work. Our days are a series of interruptions and distractions: phone calls, e-mails, meetings, water cooler chat, questions from co-workers and did we mention meetings. It’s no surprise that after what seemed like a very busy day, our to-do list hasn’t lightened.

And, sometimes our distractions are of our own doing: checking Facebook pages, sending text messages to friends or taking 12 cell calls from the spouse or kids.

So, whether your lack of productivity is legitimate (all those meetings) or just wasting time (Facebook), it’s not going to help your job performance if you can’t get anything accomplished.

1. If you’re unhappy, bored or burned out with your job, figure out how to make a change. Is there an opening in another department? Can you talk with your boss about taking on additional or different responsibilities? Chances are your supervisor would welcome your initiative and you could get a real change of pace. If you’re feeling burned out, use some vacation time and just get away for a few days. Or attend a professional conference – those are often great for rejuvenating your interest in your career and giving you a fresh perspective.
2. Checking your friends’ Facebook status for 10 minutes while eating a sandwich at your desk may be OK, but spending an hour doing that while also texting and sending personal e-mails is not. If the temptation is too great, leave your cell phone in the car and instruct your family or your children’s school to call you at the office in case of an emergency (and “what’s for dinner?” probably isn’t an emergency).
3. If you’re lucky enough to have an office with a door, you can occasionally shut yourself away to get some work done without interruption. But if you have to work in a cubicle city, you know co-workers have no problem popping by your desk with questions or simply to chat about their weekend exploits. Try placing a ribbon across the entrance to your cubicle with a sign letting people know you’re hard at work and will be free after 3 p.m., for example.

We want to know, can you work at work? What keeps you from having a productive day? Share a comment, tip or insight.