Everybody wastes time: a minute daydreaming, a few minutes scrolling Facebook. Neuroradiologist David Yousem, associate dean in the office of faculty development, offers a way to gather up those idle moments and turn them into useful, productive time.

He has created what you might consider a greatest-hits list of tips from several well-known time management theories. Taken together, Yousem says his suggestions can add 45 productive minutes to your workday—or more than six useful weeks a year.

“You can’t actually manage time,” he explains. “You manage yourself. The change is up to you.”

Here are five tips taken from Yousem’s 90-minute presentation, “How to Create Five Additional Productive Hours a Week.”

• Make weekly and monthly to-do lists. Daily to-do lists may cause you to focus too narrowly on short-term goals.
• Create a filter to catch emails that contain the word “unsubscribe” in them. Then either delete them or unsubscribe.
• Schedule a time, or times, during the day to answer email—and stick to that schedule.
• Write every day. By exercising your “writing muscle,” you can jump into writing assignments, even when you have only 15 minutes open in your schedule.
• Plan ahead. Spend a few minutes in the evening planning the next day so that you arrive at work with a strategy.