I've always had a weakness for the rule-of-10 writing style. Top-10 Tips for Beating the Blues, that sort of thing. Many self-help writers adopt this method – not least because it creates a logical framework for recommended endeavours. Sure, it's often a stretch or a squeeze, meaning it should have been 9 or 11 (or even 8 or 12). But 10 is a recallable number that'll help when trying to keep the tips in mind, so it's worth the nip-and-tuck.

Caveats aside, here are the 10 key points to note when getting started.

Point One: Love your workstation

Your workstation is the cockpit for your journey, so it has to be a place where you want to spend time. If the seat's uncomfortable, or so poorly adjusted it gives you backache or repetitive strain injury, you'll be desperate to leave soon after arriving – meaning you'll almost certainly fail the second Pomodoro session. The same is true of the outlook. If you're having to muse, plan and execute your future by constantly regarding something you dislike – or that distracts you – it'll kill your productivity.

So take time to get it right. Play with the arrangement: desk and chair in this or that corner, facing in or out from the wall, next or away from the window. Also, the desk elements need to aid your progress, not encumber it. So the computer screen position matters, as does the keyboard, mouse, in-trays, files, printer, phone, contacts book and whatever else.

There's no right or wrong way: this isn't an instruction manual. But there'll be a right and wrong way for you, which you should notice and obey. For instance, constantly struggling with the mouse for want of a mousepad (as my wife does), or realizing your contacts book and phone are located at different ends of the desk (as mine were), but doing nothing about it, are mild forms of self-sabotage.

Of course, your workstation also needs to be somewhere you can concentrate, so quietness is another requirement. This is far from easy in the modern house, where architectural trends prefer open-plan spaces; or office, where open-plan work zones are now the norm. At the very least we need somewhere we can block out the distractions, so if we cannot separate ourselves physically then we should invest in a good set of headphones and some suitable mood music to aid concentration. And turn it up LOUD ENOUGH TO BLOCK OUT THE WORLD.

Our workstation is vital – wherever it is and whatever it consists of (the same is true of a workbench). If you don't love it – and I mean love it: enjoy its company, admire its look, want to buy it presents – it won't love you back, and the relationship will immediately be off to a bad start.

Point Two: Invest in the right equipment

Of course, the same is true of our equipment. These are the tools of our trade so they need to be an aid to our progress. Cool holidays, designer clothes, posh restaurants, even that morning latte – these are all indulgences. The right equipment is essential and, if that means top-of-the-range, so be it – not least because spending money on the right gear is a strong statement of intent.

By this I don't mean buy the most expensive Mac when you only need a word-processor (although the indulgence may fall into the ‘love your workstation’ category, which makes it allowable). I'm simply stating that anything that disables or hinders you must be eliminated.

For instance, on many occasions I've struggled with some household DIY – perhaps a plumbing problem – and ultimately had to call in the professionals. They suck their teeth and knowingly shake their heads. But then they unload a piece of specialist kit that's built for the job. Within minutes, they've dealt with my hour-long struggle, and I'm handed a hefty bill (partly because they're still paying for that piece of specialist equipment).

No, having the right kit is not half the battle (only our attitude comes with that much influence). But it's a good 25 percent, which makes it worth our investment.

Point Three: Buy lots of stationery

I love stationery. I write books and I run a PR agency, which means being well-organized – making stationery my specialist equipment.

The right stationery is as cool as sunglasses. I love watching our account directors attend a meeting with a smart notepad and slick pen. It makes such a difference: we concentrate harder, we ask better questions, our eye contact is more assured. Those notebooks say that we're in control – going places. Yes, I am being flippant – but flippancies sometimes matter (especially in the perception-oriented world of PR).

Good stationery – like good equipment – works on many levels. It's not just the love of using it, or what it can do for our organizational needs. It's the message we give ourselves. We're serious. We mean business. We're future oriented. Good stationery is the walking boots of our endeavour; so, again, it's worth the expense.

One last thing on stationery. As previously stated, we must buy and use a diary. No, I don't mean for appointments, although they can be included (and some form of day-to-day organizer is a must). I mean a day-per-page journal where we can record our progress. Where are we on our journey? What's just happened? Why? What's next? What's our best approach? What went right/wrong? What are the lessons? Who should we call? What should we say?

Diaries are our immediate and future planning document. They're also our record of execution. They're the explosion of thoughts, as well as the filter. Yet they're also unstructured documents (other than the day divisions) so they're not forcing us to be more organized. They demand no rationality or process. They're simply a private, internal conversation. Yet, almost unconsciously, they add rationality to irrationality, strategy to tactics, and future thinking to daily records. Without a diary, productivity goes unnoticed and lessons unlearnt.

Point Four: Gather/capture everything

Having built our cockpit we now need to fill the aircraft. We should give ourselves a few hours to simply collect stuff. Everything: papers, letters, bills, books, brochures, folders, business cards – the lot.

David Allen (2001) states that this is the critical first step to getting things done: ‘Corralling your stuff’ as he calls it.

‘Just gathering a few more things than you currently have will probably create a positive feeling for you’, he writes. ‘But if you hang in there and really do the whole collection process, 100 percent, it will change your experience dramatically and give you an important new reference point for being on top of your work.’

Even if it seems overwhelming, this is still an important early job. As Allen states, it's helpful to have a sense of the volume.

‘It lets you know where the “end of the tunnel” is’, he states, as well as eliminating any doubts regarding that hidden to-do list or pile that may be lurking somewhere. Nothing is lurking anywhere – it's all in one big fat pile in front of us!

Point Five: Do some filing

With the skyscraper built, we now have to knock it down, or at least divide it up. Don't worry – this isn't as boring or daunting as it seems, because nothing requires our actions at this stage. We simply need to pay each item some gnat-like attention to consign it to what Allen calls the ‘right buckets’, although cardboard boxes may be better depository devices, especially if they're A4 (or US Letter) size.

Label the boxes: say, Project A for our key endeavour, Project B for a supplementary endeavour (perhaps a later milestone) and Project C for our home-personal life – any more boxes than that and we may need to prioritize, or add a final box, perhaps called Later Projects. Then we demolish the skyscraper by throwing every item into one of the boxes (or into the wastepaper bin if not assignable elsewhere).

This is Stage One, and is rather enjoyable. Stage Two drills us down a little further, so we should perhaps restrict it to our current concerns: Project A and Project C perhaps. We need some buff folders (or dynamic good-looking ones if we prefer), and we need to go through the Project A pile dividing the papers into:

• Actions – Now,
• Actions – Next,
• Reference material (including past events),
• Key documents.

That's it. Please don't buy a filing cabinet – at least not a big and remote one that sits, usually locked, in the corner. These four files should sit on your desk: sure, in a lovely looking file-holder if you fancy it. Big filing cabinets are for complete projects or maybe later projects, or even Project B. Meanwhile, anything that needs action now should be on the desk in front of you.

A note on electronic files: print them out. Apologies to environmentalists, but the paperless office is a myth. We need physical pieces of paper at this stage, so we should sweep through every electronic folder we have, and print out anything that shouldn't be immediately trashed (although perhaps putting those unallocated but want-to-save-anyway documents in a new electronic folder called ‘want to save’). This is a cleansing process so we need to cleanse – thoroughly.

Of course, there are those that'll call me a Luddite for insisting on physical bits of paper – potentially making our organizational problems worse (or at least more cluttered). I'd ask them to locate one electronic file – just one – they had ten years ago. If, by some miracle, it's not only locatable but can still be opened and updated on a current computer, we also need to ask if it's still relevant. Come on, be honest – it's sat there doing nothing for all these years: lost, forgotten, unloved. Either use it or put it out of its misery. And, if you want to use it: print it, file it and put the file somewhere prominent.

Point Six: Finish that plan

This is where we edit all that brainstorming. So far, we may have a jumble of disconnected thoughts and ideas: objectives and milestones, strategies and tactics, forecasts and schedules – all mixed up with process and procedure. And it may be scribbled on a list, scattered across a mind map or written as a ‘stream of consciousness’ document. However it's written, now we need to make sense of it all by creating a usable execution document.

These documents always look formidable – the result of bigger and more organized brains than our own. Yet look closely and they're remarkably similar to the filing exercise we've just completed. All we do is put the – perhaps disparate – thoughts and ideas under a series of headings that make sense from a project-management perspective.

Harold Kerzner is perhaps the leading writer on project management, which he defines as ‘the planning, organizing, and controlling of company [or individual] resources for a relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals and objectives’.

In his definitive 2006 guide Project Management, Kerzner states that many executives lose their jobs because they fail to manage the ‘project management process’. In fact, process is the right word because execution is just that: a process. There's no special talent or attribute involved. We just need to write a plan, activate it, and keep going.

For Kerzner, planning involves ‘selecting the enterprise objectives and establishing the policies, procedures, and programs necessary for achieving them’.

This sounds complex but, again, it's just the organization of random thoughts under headings.

These include:

• Objectives – what we aim to accomplish from the project. This is not our long-term goal but a project or milestone within.
• Programme – our action points for ensuring we meet our objectives.
• Schedule – any timing constraints or external deadlines, or simply our preferred timeframe for conception.
• Budget – anticipated costs (be realistic: underestimating the costs is a quick way to wreck your motivation).
• Forecast – our expected progress at certain points (i.e. what should be done when?).
• Organization – the resources required (human or otherwise).
• Procedure – those action points put into some form of sequential order.
• Standards – what are our benchmarks for success?

Of course, all this may look daunting. But it isn't. It's just filing for our thoughts.

Point Seven: Write a checklist

The above looks like a lot of planning, but we're not done yet because we need a list. Lists are crucial because they turn our plans – which may be several thousand words long – into a series of one-or-two-word instructions, the most important of which is a checklist. Checklists differ from to-do lists in that they capture everything that has to be included to execute any element of our plan, while to-do lists capture everything to be done over a particular timeframe, including non-project related concerns.

If we go back to David Allen's example of moving offices then a checklist will include each element – agree location, source office, plan move, inform suppliers – while a to-do list may also include taking the dog to the vet and buying a birthday card for grandma. Of course, each line on our checklist could generate a supplementary list. ‘Agree location’ for instance could include: ask staff, ask clients, ask partner, quiz agents, check prices, check availability, check transport links.

Checklists contain a fantastic egalitarianism. They're simply a line on a list – there's no hierarchy. Of course, there can be many checklists – across all the aspects of our lives. Yet there should probably be only one to-do list or we're likely to confuse ourselves and forget something crucial.

Checklists are important. They're often the ‘kick off’ point for our actions – similar to pilots calling ‘check’ as they run down their pre-flight cockpit routine. With the ‘checks’ complete they're off down the runway, as are we once a particular checklist is complete. Yet checklists also work as the end-of-session or pre-break jotting of requirements for picking up where we left off (what Allen calls his ‘memos to self’).

Point Eight: SWOT that strategy

So far, we've ignored strategy – largely because strategists spend too much time pondering, which can become a disabling trait for the productively challenged (who need no excuse to overthink things). Yet strategy is important because it's the key element for making sure our actions are focused on our objectives. Indeed, action without a strategy may well be wasted endeavour, no matter how well-honed those objectives.

Strategies, therefore, remove the headless-chicken approach to action – making sure that, as a chicken, we're heading in the right direction (while keeping our head). That said, a short passage on strategy in a book this broad cannot do justice to the enormous strategy industry – offering advice galore on how to go about developing and executing winning strategies.

So how about a shortcut? If strategies are focused on ensuring our actions are well targeted – and keep us moving towards our goal; and if we've developed a sequential series of steps towards our goal, then being strategic may simply be a case of knowing our strengths, and acting upon them. Of course, it also means knowing our weaknesses, as well as acting to overcome them.

To me, this sounds like a good excuse for a SWOT – a favourite tool of strategists because, as they all say, we need to ensure we have the right resources for the task in hand and are aware of the dangers. When assessing our plans, therefore, we should look at ourselves from an execution perspective, and list our current strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats we can see ahead.

Such an exercise should quickly tell us where immediate action is possible (our strengths), as well as where we may need to acquire new skills (our weaknesses). And it should point us to some short- and mid-term milestones (the opportunities), as well as some areas where we need to navigate (the threats).

Certainly, a SWOT gets us thinking strategically. Meanwhile, it's structured enough – and brief enough – to prevent us seeing it as an imposition or a hindrance.

Point Nine: Focus

‘The Law of Concentration states that whatever you dwell upon, grows’, writes Brian Tracy in Maximum Achievement (1993). ‘The more you think about something, the more it becomes part of your reality.’

For Tracy, this law explains both success and failure. Those that get things done are those that have developed the ability to concentrate on that thing – single-mindedly staying with it until completion.

Listen to any successful person – in business, sport or the arts – and they all talk about focus. It's an iron law of achievement.

‘Effective people guard the doorways of their minds diligently’, he continues. ‘They remain focused on what's really important to them.’

Being linear is a key part of this. Our bulging plans and long checklists could overwhelm us without focus, which is why all the planning has to come down to some executable action points that are arranged in a linear (i.e. sequential) order, with each action-point benefiting from fierce concentration.

One last thing on focus: it's effective due to the way our brain is programmed. Our reticular activating system (RAS) is a set of connected nuclei in the brain stem that regulates the brain's arousal. In other words, the RAS is the filter through which our perception of the outside world travels – alerting us to what's important, ignoring what isn't.

The RAS is fantastically receptive to the information we need to find. Perhaps thanks to our hunter-gatherer past, it alerts us to both the threats and opportunities that our senses detect. Of course, everyone's RAS is different, meaning we are alerted to different things. For instance, my father was a structural engineer focused on building failure, which meant he was incapable of walking into a building without being alerted to its tiny flaws. Meanwhile, my eldest son likes football and can spot an Arsenal or Chelsea badge (perhaps in a shop window) from 50 metres.

For both my father and son, it's their RAS doing the work – filtering out the irrelevant, pointing out the relevant. Florists spot flowers, opticians spectacles, sub-editors newspaper typos. They're never off duty.

Point 10: Make that call

Making plans that we fail to undertake is probably the most common act of self-sabotage for those seeking positive productivity. So if we hesitate here we're in ‘good’ (or at least common) company. Yet every word thus far written in this book is to get us to this point: the moment we act. Not to do so – to get to the brink and pull back – isn't just self-sabotage, it's self-betrayal.

Forget our conditions, forget our types, forget our past: from this moment onwards, we're one of two sorts of people. We're either someone that acts, or we're someone that fails to act. Having calculated our desires and long-term goals, therefore. And having drafted a plan, as well as having turned that plan into a checklist with its sequential action points: if we still hesitate we've as good as surrendered. Worse, we're fodder for those capable of action.