Have you ever pushed through a whirlwind of a workday, only to realize you accomplished nothing you intended to do that day? Amidst the whirlwind of meetings, email, business calls, and projects, we still have just 24 precious hours in each day, with only a fraction of those spent on work. And while you can’t increase the number of hours in a day, if the whirlwind is whisking you farther from your goals, you can look at ways to increase your efficiency during work hours.

Here’s how:

Develop a daily routine. Adding a few routine items to your day can help keep you focused and refreshed at work, morning, evening, and all throughout the day.

Your morning routine: When you get to work, before you hit the power button on your computer or the voicemail button on your phone, pick up a pen and paper. Write out a to-do list of the tasks you want to accomplish for the day. Go through and prioritize which tasks must get done today, versus which can be pushed, if necessary. (After your first day using this morning routine, this step will consist of reviewing the to-do list you made at the end of your last workday.)

Your throughout-the-day routine: Your day is about effectively managing your time. So after you review what needs to be done for the day, set the alarm on your phone or computer to alert you once an hour. When the alert goes off, stop and regroup. Were you as productive in the last hour as you wanted to be? If not, take a look at your to-do list and refocus your time for the next hour.

Your evening routine: Five minutes before quitting time, shut down your computer and divert your phone to voicemail. Review your to-do list for the day. Reflect on how successful your day was and what you might want to do differently moving forward. Keeping all this information in mind, prepare a new to-do list for tomorrow.

Conserve time. To make the best use of your time, you must first determine where your time is going. Five minutes of Facebook here and three minutes of text messaging there can quickly add up over an eight-hour workday. To prevent those little distractions from becoming big ones, keep an activity log for a full week. Log every activity you perform—even the little distractions—and how long you spend doing it. By the end of the week, you’ll have a good idea of where your time is actually going, which is the first step toward improving your time management.

After you know where your time is going, use time limits to maximize your productivity. Except for the most important projects, your schedule might not afford working and reworking a project. So assign a specific time limit to each task on your to-do list, and don’t exceed it. Do the best job you can within your allocated time frame and then move on to the next task. Set daily time frames to check and respond to work email, which can quickly become a time guzzler. Also set specific times (and time limits) to check in with your social platforms.

Push past procrastination. Procrastination often stems from fear or distaste, which makes perfect sense—if you dread or don’t like a project, you’re not going to be excited to tackle it, so you waste time or you put it off. Maybe the whole thing is overwhelming and you don’t know where to begin. Instead of looking at that project as an insurmountable whole, break it up into smaller, easy-to-digest chunks (even if some chunks are laughably small). Now you have a very doable checklist of the steps that make up that “insurmountable” project. You may find the simple act of creating a checklist is enough to start building momentum on your project’s progress. Continue that momentum by checking off each step as you complete it. Progress is the best motivator!

You can’t dissolve the whirlwind, but you can create more efficient ways to operate within it. And while improving your efficiency can help you stay focused and work more productively, there will still be days when even the most efficient people don’t accomplish everything they mean to. Just keep your chin up and stay with the routine, and you’ll be closer to your goals in no time!