In our last post, we tackled the issue of distractions at work. Those distractions can hamper our productivity, and more often than not many of those distractions come from the wonders of new technology – e-mail, social media, surfing the net.

But there are a number of online tools that can actually improve your productivity:

• Online to-do lists. Try Remember the Milk or Todoist. These Web-based programs allow you to access your to-dos from anywhere. You can set due dates, prioritize tasks and get e-mail reminders about what’s do that day.
• Web site bookmarking tools. How many times do you see a great article, blog post or video online that you want to share with a co-worker, read later or just keep for future reference? Use a tool like Delicious to save Web links and categorize them for added efficiency.
• Track your time. There are a number of time-tracking sites and applications that allow you to track your tasks and see just how much time a project really takes. Toggl is a free useful one. You can also check out RescueTime, which has both individual and business plans (one free option; others are paid).
• Web-based work. If you use more than one computer, you might want to use Google Docs for storing files or use Web-based e-mail so you don’t waste time searching for files you left on your other computer.
• Manage your social media. While using social media like Facebook and Twitter is fun, they also can be good for promoting your business, networking and keeping up with industry news and trends. But managing the influx of info is a full-time job. Use a program like Tweetdeck www.tweetdeck.com to manage your Twitter followers. You can group your followers to meet your needs and interests, such as a column for local contacts, a column for news, another column for individual friends and another column for industry or professional contacts. You also can update your Facebook and LinkedIn status from Tweetdeck, saving the time of logging into multiple sites. Programs like Hootsuite andPeopleBrowsr are similar useful programs.

This list is just the beginning – share your sites and tools for ramping up your productivity.

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.