Sometimes all that it takes for you to get the promotion that you have been looking for at work is a little bit of extra efficiency.

When you adopt a few easy time management practices into your daily job, you and your boss will notice improvement in the results you deliver each day. Instead of patiently waiting for your boss to pick you for that next promotion, try these suggested tactics to get noticed and get promoted.

1. Get rid of the clutter in your office. When you have a cluttered office, everyone notices, even if they don’t say something to you. Sure a cluttered office may be a sign of an organized mind, but your boss probably won’t take that into account the next time it comes to promoting someone. Look at it from his or her point of view for a moment and you’ll see what I mean. All things being equal, would he/she rather promote someone who is neat or someone who has a cluttered desk?

So clean up the clutter. The first benefit is that in doing so will make you more efficient because you won’t have to go sorting through all your clutter just to find that important paper. The second benefit is that when you boss stops by your formerly cluttered, but not neat and organized office, he’s going to take notice. It may even spark a conversation where you get to introduce the idea that you’re serious about your work and want to move up in the company. Whatever it takes, just clean the clutter and keep it that way.

2. A supportive physical environment is best. So often people forget about the quote from Bucky Fuller “Environment is stronger than willpower”. It’s true so why not use your environment to your advantage? Try this simple process. Pick five different things that occupy space in your office. For each of the 5 different things, ask the question “Does this ‘thing’ support my productivity goals or does it hinder my productivity goals?”. When you answer that question honestly about each of the things you pick, you’ll be taking the first step towards improving your chances of getting promoted.

When you tell yourself the truth, you’ll see what you should do with each object. You want to eliminate any object in your environment that does not clearly support your time management and efficiency goals. You should listen to your own answers and follow through. You only want objects in your office which support your goals, nothing else. So right now bite the bullet and get rid of any “non-supportive” objects in your environment and you’ll immediately feel the difference.

Your increased energy and higher productivity is what managers look for when it comes time to hand out promotions.

3. Process communications and requests quickly. Most people get overwhelmed each day by too many emails, too many tasks to do and often just let things pile up. It’s more likely you’ll get promoted if you can handle emails, phone calls and verbal requests made of you more quickly.

Keeping your email inbox under control is a tough thing to do, but you have to do it. Learn about various sorting and filtering functions that are part of your email program so you can sort the emails into different groups according to where they come from. Set up one group for your boss, one group for your peer level employees and one for your friends. Handle the emails from your boss quickly and efficiently, with response that briefly communicate that you understand what he/she is looking for and that you are following through on your responsibilities.

Communicate with your coworkers or peers using the same language and communication style, but do that after you have taken care of the email from your boss. If your coworkers find out that their emails always get answered after you answer the emails to the boss, no big deal. That’s the way it should be and besides, who is going to be giving out the promotions and raises, your boss or your peers?

The last thing to mention about email is that you need to have a personal, non-work email your friends can use when they want to send you an email. Most people don’t realize that emails sent to their work address essentially becomes property of the company. If you have a private non-work email address you only check from home, you won’t have to worry about the possibility of a friend sending “career damaging” information to you at work.

So there you have it. Those were easy and simple tips you can use to improve your chances of getting promoted at work. By following these time management tips, you’ll improve your productivity and efficiency and in the process let everyone know, especially your boss, that you are the person to pick for the next promotion. Enjoy yourself and get working on them right away.