A Productivity Secret from Seinfeld (and Convicts)
Sometimes the best ideas come from the most unlikely places. You might think that business books and blogs are the right places to look for insights on productivity, but for one entrepreneur the solution to his troubles was staring out at him from his television.
Lifehacker has a post for those concerned about keeping their New Year's resolutions that takes its inspiration from an unexpected source -- Jerry Seinfeld. The comedian once explained a low tech but effective productivity secret to software developer Brad Isaac, and now Isaac is sharing it with the world:
He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.
He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."
"Don't break the chain," he said again for emphasis.The idea might remind you of convicts checking off the days until release, but Isaac swears it's worked for him. "I've used it for exercise, to learn programming, to learn network administration, to build successful websites and build successful businesses," he claims and notes that in the long term small, consistent action beats a few bug pushes to meet your objectives. Do you think this simple solution might work for you?
(Image courtesy of Flickr use Alan Light, CC 2.0)