I never envisioned myself working in a cubicle farm – nor have I met anyone, when asked where they want to work, replies with “in a cubicle farm.”  Nevertheless, I do.  I mean, I’m not exactly the dude on Office Space but I do have “five bosses, Bob.”

Working in a cubicle farm is not all bad; your buddies are just one divider away, but then again, so is your boss.  When you need an answer to a question, the answer is never more than a 25 second walk away, but then again, when your boss starts a science project, you are never more than a 25 second walk away.

So, how do we maintain our productivity, or perhaps, even our sanity when working in such an environment?  So far, my experience has taught me 7 things which have helped me remain productive, sane, and perhaps even friendly – but I will leave that up to those with whom I am in daily contact with.

1. Start at Neutral – Our next day begins when the current day ends.  Before we leave our desk, there are a few things we need to take care of – the first and most important is starting at neutral.  Starting at neutral means that we clear our desk of the current days work when we are complete.  We throw away the scraps of paper that have accumulated, file our notes, and sanitize our computer desktop of anything we temporarily saved.  Essentially, we clean our desk.  This gives us an immediate productivity boost as we walk into our office to a clean desk – a clean slate to start with.
2. Determine What Your Priorities Are – The second most important item we can take care of is setting our priorities for the day.  These priorities are the things that, regardless of how the day goes, if completed, will mean we have had a successful day.  When it comes to priorities, I recommend setting no more than three.  Three priorities are manageable and usually, at least one of them can be completed before your first meeting, or before you open your email – once again, being able to check off a completed priority before mid-morning is a huge win.
3. Develop an “outline” of what your day will look like – Understand that I am not advocating a schedule.  A schedule can often cause us to lose heart when, for reasons outside of our control, we can’t stick to it.  Instead, on whatever day planner you use, establish an outline of your day.  Just like the outlines we used when writing papers in college, we know we need a thesis, a body, and a conclusion – those are rigid items needed to make the paper successful.  Accordingly, we know when we have set meetings, conference calls, etc.  Our daily outline allows us to work around those set times and fill in the “white space” with what is important to us such as our priorities, working out, etc.

1. Check email at set times – incoming emails are probably one of the greatest distractions and impediments to productivity (besides Facebook) of our time.  One of the best ways to make our email work for us and not the other way around is to set certain times of the day to check and then answer our email.  My personal technique is to check email three times per day, once in the morning – after I have completed one of my priorities – once mid-day, and then once in the afternoon before leaving for the day.  In between my set times to check email, I close my email provider – this is important, because just like an incoming text while we are driving, an email alert that pops onto our screen completely saturates our ability to focus until it is read.
2. Strive for bursts of productivity – Solid productivity all day is just not realistic.  We need natural breaks in our day to let our mind and body rest.  I am a big fan of the Pomodoro Technique – The Pomodoro technique encourages us to break up our tasks into 20-30 minute bursts of time, after which we can do something “fun” for 10 minutes such as chat with a friend, surf the web, or (sigh) check our Facebook feed.
3. Use accountability – This a chance for us to use peer pressure to our advantage.  Grab a friend who is also striving to use his time wisely and ask him to hold you to your chosen time boundaries.  As an example, there is no reason why I need to stay at my office past 5:00 pm – if I do, it is proof that I am not using my time wisely.  In order to help me stick to my boundary of leaving by 5:00, I have asked my friend Pat, who shares my desire to use his time well, to call me out if I am still working past 5:00.
4. End at Neutral – Yep, we already looked at this. But just as a reminder – when we wrap up our day, it is important to keep in mind that the ending of our current day is the beginning of our next.  So, take the extra ten minutes to clean off your desk, set your priorities, and leave with a clear head.

Being productive (and sane) in a cubicle farm is challenging, but certainly not impossible.  These steps have worked for me – I would love to hear if you have found any other techniques that keep you focused throughout your day.