I am almost always ready to embrace the change in scenery and the increased energy Fall brings. But this year I don’t quite feel the same.

Over on this side of the world, the air is getting cooler, we are seeing more red than green on our trees and the kids are preparing for back-to-school – well, maybe.

In fact, everything looks a little different this Fall, including back-to-school plans, because everything is so different.

And to replace the dreaded word “uncertainty”, which we’ve all grown accustomed to seeing over the last several months, I now have a new, perhaps more articulate, way to aptly describe this general feeling of “blah” you might be feeling too.

It is a sense of malaise.  Malaise is defined as “a feeling of discomfort or lack of well-being; having no energy; an uncomfortable feeling that something is wrong and that you cannot change the situation.” Bingo!

If, like me, you are feeling less “spring” in your step this Fall, it may help you to invest time in the following 5 principles of productivity as a foundation to recharge your day – and yourself.

1. Focus

Focus beats multitasking every time. Why? Multitasking slows you down, leads to more mistakes and causes you more stress.

Commit to doing one thing at a time and be diligent about managing your interruptions. Use your focus time for your top priorities. Let your phone go to voicemail, turn off your alerts and minimize email.

Once you’ve maxed out on your ability to focus (this could be 30-45 minutes some days or as long as 60 minutes on other days), you’ll be ready to pick up the phone, respond to email and say, “Hey world, I’m ready for you!” once again. It is important to balance our need to be responsive with our equally important need to focus.

Pro tip: Carve out focus time in the morning when your energy is at its peak. Some days this just isn’t possible but it’s a good goal to strive for.

2. Prioritize

When we are feeling overwhelmed, it becomes more important than ever to be crystal clear about our top priorities. And in productivity, less really is more. Limit yourself to no more than three to five items on your daily plan. Can you add more? Sure, but it’s better to be realistic and set yourself up for success. If you add too many items and don’t get to each one, you’ll feel defeated at the end of the day. On the other hand, it will feel amazing when you can cross off all the items on your daily plan!

The same is true for your key priorities. When you concentrate your energy on your big goals, you will be able to make meaningful progress on those priorities and feel a great sense of accomplishment before you transition to the next big thing.

How do you do this? Establish a Main Action Plan (MAP). Your MAP is a centralized, complete and prioritized list of all of your deadlines and goals. Once you have identified your top priorities, you can start taking small steps to reach those big goals. Small steps create critical early momentum. Once you start and achieve some early success, it’s much easier to continue.

“I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower

  1. Be an Email Warrior

Sometimes when I say this in live workshops, I can almost feel the skepticism but here goes. Email is not meant to be our work. It’s how we get work done. (But you already knew this, didn’t you?)

As an Email Warrior, it is possible to keep your inbox relatively clear with the 3D Approach: Dedicate time, Do it now and Defer as necessary.

Why? A clear inbox leads to better focus, clear decision-making, less time wasted – and more time for the things you love to do.

After all, your great work requires focus and attention to key priorities. Spending all day in reactive mode and responding to email is not allowing you to do your best work. Neither you or your colleagues want that.

Think of the whitespace in your inbox as “breathing space”. When you are an Email Warrior, you have room to be inspired. By clearing your inbox, and keeping it clear, you are also clearing your mind and making space to get (other) things done.

  1. Build a Proactive Routine

You may have heard this one before…but building and keeping a Proactive Routine is the ultimate strategy for busy people who are pulled in multiple directions.

When you build a routine around your top priorities, you move from working reactively to proactively and you make time for what matters most – to you. Your Proactive Routine is your golden ticket to live your life by design versus default, to create instead of react and to plan on rather than hope for an ideal day.

  1. Organize

This final strategy may not always get the credit it deserves because it doesn’t sound very exciting but getting and staying organized is truly a valuable investment of your time. You are a brilliant person who should be spending your time doing things – not looking for things. And like anything worthwhile, for organization to stick, it must become a habit.

Actively purge, digitize and organize the information and tools you use with a place for everything and everything in its place.

I hope you can use these strategies to reclaim a sense of control, improve your well-being and use this change in season to inspire a new beginning. Thanks for your time.

Related: Top 5 productivity tips to take control of busy days