A great way to increase your personal productivity is by planning for downtime and capitalizing on it when it occurs. Now this doesn’t mean that you have to push more activity into every available minute, stressing yourself out. But always have something important to work on when you do have lulls that you want to fill. Here are five great ways to capitalize on your downtime.

Five Great Ways to Capitalize on Downtime

1. Call a former client or two.

Keep a list of former clients, along with their contact info, and give one or two of them a call when you’ve got available time. There is no telling how this ongoing communication can pay off.

2. Read professional literature.

There’s no better way to keep up on what is happening in your industry than reading professional journals and magazines. But it seems that we never have enough time to do this justice. Keep at least one publication handy so you can enrich your mind while filling time.

3. Share what you’ve learned with clients, prospects and colleagues.

As a follow up to #2, condense what you’ve read into a paragraph or two and email it out to five individuals who will benefit from it. And if you want the icing on the cake, don’t just send a group email to all five, but send five individual emails each mentioning something personal about the individual and how you think he/she might benefit from your summary.

4. Review and upgrade your social media listings.

It only takes a few minutes to be sure that everything is current on your LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter pages, but somehow we never get around to investing those few minutes. The next time you’ve got a slice of time, update just one of your social media sites.

5. Send a handwritten card or note to a client or prospect.

I’m continually amazed at the impact a handwritten communication makes. I’ve received everything from an immediate phone call, to a delightful email, to a personal thank you in front of a group of people, all for the simple task of picking up a pen. Give it a try.