I got a good laugh out of myself this morning. I sat at my computer to begin work on an iPhone game that I’m co-developing. I became in thought about how there’s not enough time in the day to do all of the things that I want to do. After about 5 minutes in my spaceship of daydreams, I landed back on earth to find myself reading random articles on the internet instead of performing the task that I had sat down to do.

Conundrum: How can I complain about the lack of time that I have when I waste so much of it? I’d bet that I spend about 5-10 minutes out of every hour similarly lost in thought or distracted in some other manner. During any period of work hours, that’s almost 20% of my productivity out of the window. Which brings me to the challenge that I presented to myself this morning, and now to you: strive to squeeze every last drop of time out of your work day. Time is too valuable of a commodity to waste. Here are a couple of suggestions on how to maximize your time.

Start Earlier. The easiest and best way I’ve found to add productivity to my day is to tack a couple of hours to the beginning of it. Waking up a few hours earlier jump-starts my day and gives me time to do things that I usually am not able to get to during the chaos of my regular day. Not to mention I seem to have a great deal of energy after I eventually emerge from my drunken stupor of sleepiness. Even if you just get up an hour earlier to get yourself a good breakfast, that’s an hour well invested into the rest of your day. That meal will mean the world to your energy level and focus.

Not a morning person? Fine, starting earlier can mean shaving time off of your morning ritual so you can get to work earlier and get a jump on your tasks. (To add to this point, I read an article on TheStreet.com this morning that had an interesting take on your career as an investment. Great point for the young professionals out here.)

Work Smarter. Working hard is commendable, but working smart separates you from your peers. From the cubicle to the stage, nobody cares how many late hours you spend on your grind if you’re not producing any notable output. Concentrate on your results, not your effort.

The most important things to keep in mind as you’re striving to work smarter are your goals. Set them at the beginning of your day, or the night before. Go as far as to break them down into modestly sized tasks. That way, you can improve your focus throughout your day by dedicating chunks of your time to each of your tasks.