I’m struggling to stay motivated (a never-ending to-do list will do that to you), so I’ve recently been trying to spice up my work day with small and achievable goals.

What can I say, I’m a geek. I have to make to-do lists in order to get anything done, and crossing the items off really gives me a kick. I finish every day by making a list of all the things I need to get done the next day and then spend the next day tackling them. Seriously, it’s great motivation to see the suckers get done one after the other.

Of course, it’s not a flawless system, and it is way easier to check Facebook and read blogs than it actually is to sit down and crank out 1,000 words. For this reason, I have the fifteen-minute timer.

When I’m having a particularly unimpressive day, I set the timer for fifteen minute intervals and get to work on the things on my to-do list for that interval. Sure, writing a whole article that will take hours seems daunting when you can’t even find enough energy to write a single sentence, but fifteen minutes? What’s fifteen minutes? Pfft, nothing. You can do ANYTHING for fifteen minutes. Unless you’re on an hourly deadline, it’s easy to tackle something for short spurts every day, until eventually you reach your goal.

Truth be told though, I usually find that once I’ve forced myself to do something for such a short period, I end up continuing the momentum even after that time is up. If I’m particularly uninspired and I’ve struggled through it, then fine, I’ll move on to something else. But typically, what happens is that I find I’m sucked into it, and I completely lose track of time. When I look up, I’m usually almost done.

So that’s my technique. What do you do to stay motivated during periods when you’d rather poke hot rods in your eyeballs than write?