Doing your best work requires focus and energy – but it's hard to stay focused for an eight-hour stretch. How do you find the necessary energy to get your work done?

1 Tailor your tasks to your energy Organise your to-do list around how awake you feel. During the lulls you can then turn to tasks that don't require a great deal of focus: cleaning out your inbox, filling out expense reports or returning phone calls.

2 Get up and move Any kind of physical movement will temporarily boost your alertness and energy levels. Take a brisk walk around the block, walk up and down the stairs, do some jumping jacks or push-ups, or even just stretch at your desk.

3 Meditate Research suggests even a few minutes of meditation lowers stress and improves concentration and focus in a tired brain. Even just five to seven deep belly breaths give you a lot more oxygen, which will give you a boost.

4 Avoid relying on caffeine All caffeine does is block a chemical that tells your body you are tired. While this might work for a while, caffeine, like any other drug, soon begins to have diminishing returns. The more you drink, the more you'll need to feel awake.

5 Listen to music Just as you use music to energise you when you work out, it can energise you for your presentation. And a laid-back beat might help someone else clear his mind and focus.

6 Power down your device Blue light from a device's screen suppresses the production of melatonin, the chemical that tells your brain that it's time to go to sleep. Try to avoid checking your email or surfing the internet one to two hours before bed.

7 Get more sleep Sleep is the number one predictor of success. A 2009 study found that people who had their sleep restricted to five hours a night for four days in a row showed the same loss in performance at a simple cognitive task as people who showed signs of intoxication. – Copyright Harvard Business Review 2015