I just adore this post from Lisa Haneberg at the Management Craft blog.  Lisa says that a good way to be more productive in everyday life is to fake your way into pre-vacation mode.  Imagine that you are going on a 4-week vacation next week and change the way you conduct yourself at work.   When we prepare for vacation, says Lisa, we tend to do several things better than when in normal mode:

• We delegate much more effectively.
• We blast through all the little dangling bits of unfinished work.
• We trash 50 magazines sitting on our desk waiting to be read.
• We let go of tasks that ought not be on our lists - they don't rate.
• Our pace is more efficient - fast and focused.
• We don't book stupid meetings - just the meetings that are really needed.
• We have sit down check-ins with people to make sure they are clear about what needs to get done.

If you’ve ever gone away on vacation (and I certainly hope all of you have), you know this to be true.  Problem is, a big reason for your re-invigorated work ethic is excitement over your upcoming stint out of the office. It’s a bit harder to motivate yourself to be quite as efficient when you know in your heart that tomorrow is just another day of the same old, same old.  Nevertheless, a right-on-the-money insight from Lisa that’s worth thinking about!