Spring is on its way and with it, spring cleaning. Many people feel motivated to organize their house and to improve their productivity around this time of year. Just like we tend to hide inside our homes in the winter, this organizational wave hits us when we sense the spring is coming.

Here are my top 5 productivity tips, including the most important tip ever:

#1: Do the most important thing first

Your Most Important Things for the day ? the things you most need to accomplish that day ? should take priority over everything else. However, we all know that fires need to be put out as they come up throughout the day, interruptions through phone calls and email and people dropping by have to be dealt with, and new demands that will push your plans aside. Start with what’s important.

#2: Make sure your actions are in line with your goals

If we just do any work that comes our way, we can find ourselves completing tasks without really being productive. You’re only productive if you are doing work that moves you towards a goal. Eliminate as many non-essential tasks from your to-do lists as possible, and start to say no to new requests that are non-essential.

#3: Finish what you start – Work on one thing at a time

Focus as much as possible on doing one thing at a time. Clear your desk of distractions. Pick something to work on. Need to write a report? Do only that. Remove distractions such as phones and email notifications while you’re working on that report. If you’re going to do email, do only that. This takes practice, and you’ll get urges to do other things. Just keep practicing and you’ll get better at it.

#4: Create a system

Based on your personality, life-style and type of work and responsibilities you have create a system that works for you. What works for me, for instance, is to write down in my calendar everything I want to do, including time to write blogs, to prepare for classes, and even to rest. I write ?gym? in my calendar. I write ?rest? in my calendar. Otherwise, it doesn’t happen. I created folders where I keep papers: Inspiration folder, future blog folder, non-urgent folder, ?look on the weekend? folder. That what works for me. What works for you? When do you clean your emails? Once a day? Once a week? Once a year? Create systems. It will take some of the pressure off your brain.

#5 and the most important one: Add ?want to’s? to your ?have to’s?

Productivity is managing a combination of external and internal resources. Externally, you want to have the time, knowledge, and resources to get things done. Internally, you want to have motivation and confidence that you can get it done.

The key is to be motivated from anabolic (positive), instead of catabolic (negative) energy.

You might be saying to yourself ?If I don’t get it done it will affect me down the road? or ?I have to do it today, otherwise I?ll have too much to do tomorrow.?

The motivation to be productive in this case comes from fear.

The other source of motivation to getting things done is the ?want to? perspective. This motivation is all about creativity, passion and innovation.

When you have a list of things that need to get done, start with those that you feel motivated to do, that you want to do. Add some things you enjoy, things you really want to do ? like taking a walk in nature (if you love it) or taking a dance class, or maybe meeting a friend you love for coffee.

Even if your life is very busy and it feels like an endless ?to-do? list, even if it feels like there’s no room for more activities, include some ?want to? activities in your schedule and the rest will feel less stressful and demanding.

Of course your inner critic will tell you that you can’t afford to ?waste? time with the fun activities.

This is a false voice.

Listen to your true voice. It might say something like: ?I deserve to enjoy life and have fun? or ?when I energize myself the rest feels effortless?

Make a list of things you have to do and things you want to do.

How?s the balance between the two lists?

What items on your ?have to? could be moved to the ?want to? list by changing your thinking about them?

What fun activities can you add to the ?want to? list?

This post was inspired by reading Leo Babauta’s blogs at?http://zenhabits.net/