NEW YORK, June 13 (Reuters) - When you think of

productivity, what comes to mind?

Probably the image of someone stressed out, rushing around,

scheduling every minute of every day.

Wrong.

That person may indeed be super busy, but they are likely

not at their most productive. And they are probably headed

towards burnout.

True productivity requires a different approach, according

to Laura Mae Martin, Google's in-house productivity expert who

just published a book on the subject, "Uptime: A Practical Guide

to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing."

It requires you to be much more thoughtful about how you

design your days: What to do, when to do it, where to do it and

how to do it well.

For example: Could lounging on the couch and binge-watching

your favorite TV show actually be considered 'productive'?

In Martin's view, yes. If you have set aside some downtime

for yourself, want to enjoy an afternoon away from work, and

recharge your batteries for the coming week - then that time is

being used exactly as intended.

So how can people wrest back control of their time and craft

sustainable schedules to get the most out of every day?

Here are a few factors to consider:

WHAT TO DO

You cannot get to everything you would like to accomplish in

this life - there is just not enough time. You have to choose.

That means focusing on a handful of priorities that are most

important to you - say, three of them.

"Have the lens of 'Future You' in mind," Martin says. "What

are the things you are going to be glad you focused on and

prioritized? Make a to-do list that reflects that. And then

learn how to say no to other things."

WHEN TO DO IT

All blocks of time are not created equal. Some will be

productive, some will not. It depends on you are how you are

wired.

For example, if you are a morning person, you may get in a

high-performance flow earlier in the day like 9 a.m. or 10 a.m.

- and then see your productivity petering out at 4 p.m. or 5

p.m.

Schedule your most demanding work when you are at your best

and less taxing tasks when you are not. If you do the reverse,

you are just asking for trouble.

"This might be the most important section of the book,

because the biggest pitfall of productivity is treating all time

slots equally," Martin says. "What are your 'Power Hours,' when

you can do focused, heads-down work? Protect those times for

yourself."

WHERE TO DO IT

This question came to the forefront in the pandemic era,

with so many workplaces going remote. Once you have identified

your most productive hours of the day, what is the best location

for that effort?

Again, the answer is a highly personal one: Depending on

your personality and your job, your Power Hours might best be

spent quietly at home, or in an open, collaborative office

workspace.

To maximize that effort, Martin says, help your brain along

with what's called 'state dependency': The tendency to associate

certain environments with certain tasks.

"Use that to your advantage," she says. "Maybe you always

sit at a desk to do your calls and meetings, and then in a chair

across the room to catch up on emails. That way you are giving

your brain an easy way to know what to do next."

HOW TO DO IT WELL

Here is a task that everyone has to accomplish: Keeping up

on emails. There is a way to do it thoughtfully and a way to do

it haphazardly that is totally inefficient.

"Think of it like laundry," says Martin, who has been able

to maintain 'Inbox Zero' despite her high-powered job. "You

wouldn't open your dryer 20 times a day, fold one shirt, put it

away, and then keep coming back to it all day long to do the

same thing. But that's the way people are handling email."

Instead, set aside specific times of day where you can put

all those emails into different buckets, like ones to read, or

review or respond.

Same thing with your smartphone: It is obviously a useful

tool, but do not be afraid to set yourself guard-rails like

locking apps after a certain time of day or putting your phone

in a different room at nighttime (as Martin does).

"Make it work for you, instead of against you," Martin says.

(Editing by Lauren Young and Aurora Ellis)