We all have moments of feeling lazy, non-productive or flat out of good ideas. And sometimes we may even find ourselves in seriously difficult situations. You can’t avoid having some down times, but you may dramatically improve your career if you learn to dig yourself out of your own holes.

If you want to launch a more positive and productive cycle in your career, try some of these techniques:

• Make a change. If things are not going well, the worst strategy is to keep doing things in the same old way. It may be time to shake things up or try a different approach. If you bring new influences or activities into your life, it could stimulate new creativity in your work. You can start the change process by talking with somebody new, reading a stimulating book or simply varying your daily patterns.
  
  
• Tackle your habits. Research suggests that sometimes our achievements are constrained by our habitual behavior. And by replacing the usual patterns of behavior in one part of our life we can stimulate positive change in many aspects. It seems that when we change our routines we stimulate our decision-making abilities and find ourselves making new kinds of choices. If, for example, we revamp our dietary habits we might find ourselves also stimulating better work habits.
  
  
• Set some goals. It’s hard to move in a new direction when you don’t know where you want to go. Shift your focus away from the things that are going wrong and make a list of what you’d like to see in the next phase of your career. The more vividly you define your goals – that is, the more clearly you envision them -- the more likely it is that you will move toward them.
  
  
• Organize your day. Each morning, before you plunge into your normal hectic activities, take a few minutes to focus on your priorities. Visualize your day, and give some thought to how you want it to play out. Look over your goals and try to keep them in mind as you continue to make decisions about allocating your time.
  
  
• Apply the 80:20 Rule. This principle says that a small proportion of your activity always accounts for a large portion of your productivity. In other words, if you look over your “to-do” list you may find that by completing just 20 percent of your action items you will accomplish most of your most pressing challenges. The 80:20 Rule suggests that you focus your attention on the small number of tasks that will deliver the biggest return on time you spend.
  
  
• Eat some frogs. In his little book on procrastination, “Eat That Frog,” Brian Tracy wrote that if the first thing you do each morning it is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day knowing that the worst is behind you. Your “frog” may be your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate about if you don’t do something now. Your day will flow more smoothly if you “eat your frog” early in the day, before you have to stare at it for very long.
  
  
• Say “thanks.” A great way to shake yourself out of a negative mood is to focus on things for which you are grateful. To stimulate more positive energy, go a little further, and look for opportunities to sincerely thank others for their contributions.