It’s hard to Work Less, Make More when you feel chained to your office. It’s also hard when you aren’t prioritizing and really getting to the important jobs. You end up wasting valuable time on the tasks that matter least instead of those that matter most. By delegating and prioritizing effectively, you can become a little less indispensable and begin your Work Less, Make More strategy one step at a time—and that means, one step out the office door at a time. Leave your laptop, forget the briefcase, and go home!

One of the toughest things for people to do is to actually get out of the office. In order to Work Less, Make More you have to make your commitments and stick to them. Learning how to manage your workload and administrative tasks—and, most importantly, managing your time efficiently—is the first step in getting you out the office door and on your way to a new lifestyle.

Once you decide what time you want to go home this week, whether it is 5:00 p.m., 4:30 or 3:00, here are five great strategies you can do to actually follow through on your commitment and go home early this week:

Monday: Harness the Power of Three

Identify your top three activities for the week (called the Power of Three) and commit to accomplishing those three and nothing else. These top three priorities need to be things that will add tremendous value—and will add some more money to your pocket. You know, the stuff you’ve been wanting to do but haven’t gotten around to doing. Focus on those three activities and let the others go this week.

Tuesday: Set Aside a Support Day

Schedule one day (called Support Days) to handle all your administrative chores. Don’t schedule any meetings. Don’t answer your phone. Don’t read email. Don’t let anyone come into your office to interrupt you. Just sit down and get through the stacks on your desk all day long. You’ll create incredible momentum and you’ll feel good about going home early.

Wednesday: Let Go of Some Work

Make a list of everything you have to do and dump the bottom 20 percent of your projects. Oftentimes, you fill your calendar and your To-Do List with tasks that make you feel important. More times than not, these activities are really useless things that you somehow believe are important. For this week only, take 20 percent of what’s on your list and scratch them off. Stop thinking about them. Stop obsessing about why you’re not getting them done. Just let those 20 percent go.

Thursday: Manage Your Email

Schedule one time during the day to read email. This technology that was supposed to free us has actually become a burden. Rather than checking your email throughout the day and losing the momentum you create, schedule one time during the day every day this week to read and respond to email. The rule is you must handle each email you receive—no saving, no filing away for later. But only do this once a day for the next week. (You can also use this strategy for returning voice mail messages.)

Friday: Learn to Say No

Don’t say yes to any new projects this week. One of the reasons you feel overloaded is you keep saying yes to new projects no matter how busy you already are. For one week, you should say no to anything that’s new. No matter how great the project is, say no this week. You first need to clean off your plate before you start adding new stuff to it. It’s only seven days. You can do it!

One last thing: Don’t try to make up hours by working on the weekend. That defeats the entire purpose. What you will realize is that putting in all those hours is not necessary. Manage your time efficiently, prioritize and delegate, and you can be just as productive in a shorter work week. Actually, you will be more productive.

You can Work Less, Make More. You just have to make your commitments and stick to them. With your renewed energy and more balanced lifestyle, you will be able to concentrate on the things that really matter in your business—putting your brilliance to work where it counts most.