In the workplace, we have made exponential leaps forward in technology and support.

The problem is that better overall productivity in an organization may not translate into increased productivity for an individual worker.

One person may now be producing the previous results of three, but she's not being paid three times as much and may feel less productive than ever. It may seem a paradox, but our new productivity tools are undermining our ability to get work done. They are causing us to become paralyzed by the dizzying number of options that they spawn.

What's needed is a system that creates space to think, to reflect, to review, to integrate and to connect dots.

These are the kinds of comments I hear in my work as a consultant:

"I'm overwhelmed, and with all the changes going on here, it's getting worse. There aren't enough hours in the day to do my job."

"I have new responsibilities that demand creative and strategic thought, but I'm not getting to them."

"I have too many e-mails, and, given day-to-day urgencies, the backlog keeps growing."

It can be a recipe for frustration, as employees feel overwhelmed by their companies' very progress. And the problems and logistics of workers' personal lives add yet another layer of complexity.

So, given all the obstacles, how do you find your way to a feeling that you're doing exactly what you should be doing, with a sense of relaxed and focused control?

As Dr. Nicolas von Rosty, head of executive development at Siemens, once told me, "You must be able to be present, not distracted, to be able to trust your inner wisdom and make quick decisions without others' input or waiting for perfection."

How do you find the space needed to do that? By integrating all the chaos of the workplace and staying focused on the most important things, as they relate to your goals, direction, values and desired outcomes. You must constantly recalibrate your resources to generate the best results, and to say "not now" to what's less important.

We are not born doing this. It's a focus that must be learned.

Use a sequence of five events to optimize your focus and resources:

Capture everything that has your attention, in your work and your personal life, in writing. Maybe it's your departmental budget, a meeting with the new boss, an overdue vacation, or just the need to buy new tires and a jar of mayonnaise. For the typical professional, it can take one to six hours to "empty the attic" of your head. It may seem daunting, but this exercise invariably leads to greater focus and control.

Clarify what each item means to you. Decide what results you want and what actions - if any - are required. If you simply make a list and stop there, without putting the items in context, you'll be stuck in the territory of compulsive list-making, which ultimately won't relieve the pressure. What's the next action when it comes to your budget? The next step in arranging your vacation? Applying this simple but rigorous model puts you in control; otherwise, your lists will hold your psyche hostage. And keep in mind that much progress can be made and stress relieved by applying the magic two-minute rule - that any action that can be finished in two minutes should be done in the moment.

Organize reminders of your resulting to-do lists - for the e-mails you need to send, the phone calls you need to make, the meetings you need to arrange, the at-home tasks you need to complete. Park the inventory of all your projects in a convenient place.

Regularly review and reflect on the whole inventory of your commitments and interests, and bring it up to date. As your needs change, whatshould have priority and what can be postponed? Make these decisions while considering your overall principles, goals and accountabilities. Schedule a two-hour, weekly operational review, allowing space to clean up, catch up and do some reflective overseeing of the landscape, for all work and personal goals, commitments and activities.

Finally, deploy your attention and resources appropriately.

I have never seen anyone apply these practices, with some degree of commitment and application, and not find significant improvement in focus, control and results. The technology, the organizational goals, the quirkiness and turbulence of external realities - these become things to manage, not a hoped-for source of productivity itself.

One possible path to that feeling of control is to return to a make-it-or-move-it existence. Find work that requires little if any thinking, but merely reacts and responds to what presents itself.

I've often made the point in my seminars that having a "bait shop in the Berkshires" is always an option for making life less stressful. But a client once told me that a friend of his had actually done that - by cashing out of Wall Street, going to the Berkshires and buying a fishing camp. When my client visited him, the guy was wrapped around his computer, on the Internet, trying to find the right baits to buy and sell, trying to figure out how to advertise his camp, and so on.

In other words, our attraction to a world of infinite possibility, information and complexity is here to stay. The challenge is how to participate productively in this new and turbulent world, and not be paralyzed by it.

The New York Times