Ninja Here's a productivity and an evil tip: clean out your inbox. Seriously, we talk about Inbox Zero all the time, but there's more to be gained from it then a self-satisfied sense of accomplishment. A clean inbox gives you a leg up on what's probably one of the best ways to look busy: being super-responsive. When you have the ability to glance at your inbox, see a new message come in, and instantly fire off a reply before the sender can even lift their finger off the send button, you really look like you're on top of your game. Granted, there are two schools of thoughts on this: the first is that it makes you look less busy because you have time to reply to email, but if done well, it makes you look like you're always working , even at off hours and even if your replies are "I'll get back to you on this as soon as I can." Again, pick your battles -- you don't want to sit there and get into heavy details in your responses unless it's appropriate. With that said, the majority of the questions you probably get via email are things that someone could figure out if they looked hard enough, read an email or document you've already sent them, or paid attention the last time you told them. Fire off a super-fast reply with what they need to know in it, and they'll be in your debt and you'll look like