11 simple things you can do to be more productive and impressive at work

11 simple things you can do to be more productive and impressive at work 11 simple things you can do to be more productive and impressive at work The path to professional success is long, and often winding. It’s a combination of working hard, pursuing your passions, and meeting the right people.But there are steps you can take immediately to get closer to your goals. Below, we’ve collected a bunch of quick and dirty strategies - supported by research and expert opinion - to be more successful at work. You’ll learn how to impress your boss (and make your coworkers jealous) and stay productive even when you’re feeling uninspired.Read on for our top tips.Show up on time - or earlySimply put, your boss will like you more.Research from the Michael G. Foster School of Business  at the University of Washington suggests that employees who get into the office early are generally perceived by their managers as more conscientious and receive higher performance ratings than employees who arrive later.And it doesn’t matter if those who get in later stay later, too.In the Harvard Business Review,  the paper authors write:“[I] n three separate studies, we found evidence of a natural stereotype at work: Compared to people who choose to work earlier in the day, people who choose to work later in the day are implicitly assumed to be less conscientious and less effective in their jobs.”The one caveat? If your boss is a night owl, they probably won’t judge you as harshly for showing up on the later side.Dress upResearch suggests that  dressing more formally  can make you both feel and appear more powerful.In one  2014 study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, men dressed in either a suit or sweats engaged in mock negotiations with a partner. Results showed that the men were more successful in the negotiations when they were wearing a suit.Bumping into your CEO unexpectedly might sound like the beginning of a nightmare. It doesn’t have to be.According to  etiquette and civility expert  Rosalinda Oropeza Randall, “it’s an opportunity to show yourself off.” If you don’t know the pe rson very well,  introduce yourself  and tell them which department you work in. Then read their body language to see whether they’re interested in chatting further.If you’re already pretty chummy with your CEO, you can simply say something like, “Do you have plans for the holidays?”Schedule a power hour Time-management expert and author  Laura Vanderkam recommends  dedicating the first hour of your workday to an important project. Ideally, you’ll be uninterrupted by emails, phone calls, or knocks on your door. She calls it a “power hour.” As Vanderkam previously told Business Insider, “We have to consciously choose to spend less time on email and carve out time for the important work that matters to us.” You might think listening to music helps you get stuff done faster, but in fact research suggests that it makes you  less  productive  on most tasks. For example, a  2010 study  found that people performed worse on a memory task when they listened to music in the background, compared to when they worked in quiet. According to Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist and musician, a better bet is to  listen to music  for 10 to 15 minutes before you get down to work, so you’re relaxed and in a good mood. Listen to music right before you start an assignment You might think listening to music helps you get stuff done faster, but in fact research suggests that it makes you  less  productive  on most tasks. For example, a  2010 study  found that people performed worse on a memory task when they listened to music in the background, compared to when they worked in quiet. According to Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist and musician, a better bet is to  listen to music  for 10 to 15 minutes before you get down to work, so you’re relaxed and in a good mood. Take a lunch break with coworkers One survey found that 80% of workers  eat lunch at their desks.And yet stepping outside, even for 15 to 30 minutes, during your lunch break can be beneficial. As a professor at University of California, Davis Graduate School of Management  told NPR: “We know that creativity and innovation happen when people change their environment, and especially when they expose themselves to a nature-like environment, to a natural environment.”Meanwhile, a  2015 study  found that  eating lunch with coworkers  can boost team performance. Specifically, firefighters who prepared and ate meals together displayed more cooperative behavior.Find a peer mentorYour manager shouldn’t be the only person at work to give you feedback.According to Suzanne Bates, CEO of  Bates Communications  and author of the new book “All the Leader You Can Be,” successful leaders often have  peer mentors, or coworkers who they regularly exchange feedback with. Bates says having a peer mentor can help you rise faster in your organization.She recommend choosing someone who works in a different business or department at your organization. It’s even better if you’ve worked with that person on a cross-business or inter-department project.Meanwhile, bestselling author Simon Sinek says the  most successful leaders  have a “buddy,” or someone who also aspires to leadership. Buddies regularly exchange knowledge and advice in order to keep each other from getting too caught up in the trappings of wealth and fame.Ask your team for feedbackDon’t forget to  solicit feedback from people who are junior to you  as well.Kim Scott, a former Google and Apple exec, and the author of “Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity,” recommends asking your reports, “Is there anything I could do or stop doing that would make it easier to work with me?”Then - and this is the hard part - wait silently for six seconds. Your employees will have to come up with some piece of construct ive criticism just to make things less awkward.Speak up in a meeting Yes, it can be scary - but it pays off. Jenna Lyons, former president and executive creative director of J.Crew Group Inc.,  told Motto  she’s impressed by employees who  speak up and share ideas. “I find it impossible to understand where a person stands if they don’t join the conversation,” she said. “Opinions aren’t reserved for those in the corner office. Find your voice, and make sure to balance your input; you should be contributing roughly equal parts complimentary support of others with thoughtful, constructive criticism. And never be afraid to pitch an idea; we all have good ones, and we all have bad ones,” Lyons said. Towards the end of the day, reflect on what you accomplished It’s simpler than you think. A 2014  working paper  from researchers at Harvard Business School and elsewhere found that  15 minutes of reflective writing  is enough to make you more successful at work. In one study, employees at an Indian outsourcing company spent the last 15 minutes of the workday either going through further training or writing and reflecting on what they’d learned that day. Results showed that the second group performed about 23% better on a final assessment. “In the field study, we were asking people to work less,” one of the study authors previously told Business Insider. “It’s counterintuitive, because you think you want to use those 15 minutes to keep working, but it actually leads to performance.” Plan the following work day Don’t wait until tomorrow morning to figure out what you need to be working on. Workplace experts  have told Business Insider  that it’s important to get your most important objectives for the next day down on paper. “You may have two or three of them that are top of mind, but commit them to writing so you have a core foundation to work from the next morning,” said national workplace expert Lynn Taylor. This practice also helps you  stop fixating on work obligations- and actually relax a little. A  2015 study, published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, found that writing down how you plan to complete any unfinished tasks the following day allowed many people to stop thinking about those tasks. This article was originally published on Business Insider.