1. Plan ahead. Every day, before you end work, make a list of the five most important things you need to do tomorrow. Tomorrow, finish those five tasks before getting to anything else.

2. Do one thing at a time. Trying to finish multiple tasks at a time will do nothing but distract you. Even if you have several windows open simultaneously, try to finish one task before moving on to the next.

3. Don’t leave things to the last minute. As tempting as it may be, finish work as and when it arrives instead of leaving it for later. Long deadlines are great, but not if they’re making you procrastinate.

4. Keep yourself accountable. Keeping a daily log of work done and things achieved will help you figure out how productive you are over a daily, weekly, and monthly period and take action if you’re not feeling up to par.

5. Minimize distractions. No game-playing, e-mail checking, or photo uploading to Facebook at times when you’re supposed to be writing that press release.

6. Reward yourself. Every time I finish something that was tough for me, I make it a point to reward myself. This doesn’t have to be big. E-mail is usually the big tough one for me. I’m perpetually behind. So every time I’m able to clear my Inbox completely, I do something I’ve been looking forward to, like watching a movie.

7. Break it up into small pieces. I try to schedule interviews as soon as I get an assignment, even if I do the actual writing an hour before deadline. Similarly, you might want to figure out best way to break up every assignment so that you can do the interviews, research, transcription and writing in effective ways.