Article: If you can, listen to music while you work to help keep yourself distracted and pass the time more quickly. This will also help you engage more parts of your brain. Just make sure you're listening to music that matches the mood; too slow and it might lull you to sleep. Every person has their own get-jazzed kind of music. Do some experimenting with Internet radio; you may find that in-the-zone-work-music is different than the music you prefer to listen to in your free time. If possible, get out of the office. Take a short walk or drive to get food, and eat out instead of in the conference room. Getting others to come with you is another good idea. That long, social break may be what you need to power through the afternoon. Avoid going to the bathroom or doing other things that can be done before/after your lunch in order to get the most time out of your lunch. Try going to a new place for lunch every once in a while, and recruit co-workers. This way there is something to look forward to during the morning. A cluttered area is a cluttered mind. A cluttered mind leads to slower and poorer decision making. Take five minutes to just organize whatever's at your desk or in your space. When it's cleaner, you've not only killed a bit of time, but you've also made it easier to breathe. On a slow day, it's all about keeping yourself busy. If you don't have your own area to clean, consider organizing a community area. How could your boss say no? When we get home from work, it's all too easy to plop down in front of the TV for hours on end and go on autopilot. This is great in theory, but then when work rolls around the next morning, it's like it never happened. This is even worse when it takes up your entire weekend. In your downtime at work, make a plan. If your boss asks, you're just practicing time management. This not only keeps you busy now, but it gives you something to look forward to. And then when that time does roll around, it'll be time well-spent. You'll be recharged and work won't seem so bad since you had quality time off. If it's a slow day at work, you may just need another new task to take care of. And the fact that it's new will make the time go by much faster. Ask your boss if you can go get everyone lunch or take care of the inside of the microwave that everyone knows about but no one acknowledges openly. If you're feeling particularly ambitious, start on a project that isn't due for a while. That way when the time comes, that day in the future will go by much faster. You're using right now to take care of future you, which is a win-win. There's tons of scientific data that say breaks are good for you and for your work performance. In fact, just a two-minutes break can increase your productivity by 11%. It can literally keep you on schedule. So don't feel guilty about taking a second to browse Facebook, check your email, or send that text or Tweet. In the long run, it'll make you perform better. Just make sure it doesn't start to negatively affect your performance. A few minutes on Facebook is good, but an hour is not. Breaks are only breaks when they're sandwiched between periods of working hours!

What is a summary?
Listen to music. Get the most out of your lunch hour. Organize your work area. Plan your evening or weekend. Ask for something to mix up your day (or come up with it yourself). Don't feel guilty for taking a few minutes to yourself.