Two things go into making our days productive - the first is what we do and the second is how we do it.

In recent conversations with advisors, a number have begun using a simple idea to dramatically increase the return they get on their day, by ensuring that they're focusing on high return activities.The first thing to making your time in the office productive is being intentional, stepping back at the start of the week and asking what is the highest and best use of this week as a whole and each day within this week.

I've worked with some advisors recently who have begun spending 15 or 20 inutes planning the week ahead, identifying the biggest priorities. Some do this end of the day Friday, others on Saturday or Sunday.

Just by doing that, advisors tell me that they find their week has greater focus.

The other key to productivity is building consistent routines into your schedule, using the tried and true approach of time blocking.

Routine simplifies our lives - without routine, we'd all have to make so many individual decisions we'd spend most of our time deciding what to do rather than doing it.

Some of the most successful advisors I know have very consistent routines. Each day looks pretty much the same - as long as the routine is one that supports the right activity, it can boost our productivity dramatically.

For many advisors, the best way to establish routine in your day is via time blocking, establishing time in your calendar for key activities.

Suppose you say that you want to meet with your assistant Scott on Monday morning to lay out the week ahead. You can say to yourself - I need to talk to Scott when we both get in. Or you can say to Scott - "let's book a 15 appointment for 8:30 every Monday morning and build it into our routines."

Or perhaps you decide you need to spend at least three hours a week talking to prospects. To make that happen, you can try to find time during the week as it is available - or you can book off an appointment at 10 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, focused on picking up the phone and calling prospects.

Here's another example. One of the advisors who participated in the video interview series available on this website decided to ramp up the number of client phone reviews.

So he did a couple of things. First, he booked off every afternoon from 2 to 4 for telephone reviews.

And then he sat down with his assistant and said: "I've set aside 10 time slots each week for phone meetings, one at 2 and one at 3 each afternoon. "Your job is to fill those slots. Let's talk about who you should approach about those meetings. And let's talk about what needs to go out to clients in advance of those, an agenda, a pdf of their statement, anything else I want to refer to on the call."

As a result of building a key activity into his routine, he dramatically ramped up the number of phone meetings with clients.

When you think about it, you can approach your week two ways. You can have desired activity drive the structure of your week. You can say each Monday What do I want to do this week and then fit it into your calendar.

Or you can have the structure of your week drive your activity. You can carve out the same hours each week to meet with staff and for phone meetings, client meetings and to contact prospects.

By putting these hours into your calendar and incorporating them into your routine, you dramatically increase the chances of making high return activities happen. That doesn't mean you can't deviate from your schedule if something more important comes up, but for most of us having a consistent routine for at least part of our week will make us much more productive.