Yep, you hear it all the time and you think it's a load of rubbish but this time it really happened. I've spent my LIFE being the biggest procrastinator out there. I have spent far too many hours than I care to think about on Facebook, Twitter, the BBC, popurls etc. I've spent every day stressed at an ever growing to-do list and gone to bed every night feeling guilty about all the things I've failed to get done. Well, not any more!

The other day while procrastinating with the help of popurls I stumbled across an article on how to have a 4 hour workday. I skipped on over and there it was, the article that has changed the way I work forever.

Many of you will have read numerous articles or books on how best to organise your time. One of the most popular books being Getting Things Done by David Allen. I've read a few but despite embracing the concept of simplifying my tasks into easy to tackle chunks and keeping track of everything in various lists, I still felt like I was drowning in work and never getting anything done.

The main problem was that my lists never got any smaller. Every time I ticked off an item, I'd add three more. It was hard to keep motivated, which of course just led to more and more procrastination.

The article talks about many different things but what really struck a chord with me was the idea of having a finite task list for each day. When you’ve finished all the tasks on your list, you’re done. If that happens at 11am, then you're done for the day. If that happens at 9pm, well... Your day ends when your work ends.

THIS is what has changed my life. Suddenly I have a huge amount of motivation to get things done as quickly as possible because instead of working a set number of hours no matter how much or little I get done, I am now able to stop work as soon as my tasks are complete! Every day I now start work motivated to work, with a sense of achievement from knowing I completed all my tasks the day before. I feel both energised and relaxed.

I urge you to read the article and give the system a go. The only advice I will give is to start with small daily lists you can easily complete. That way you build up a feeling of positivity and achievement which will give you the motivation to continue. Sure, you might have a couple of short working days but that's better than failing to complete all your tasks and giving up.