A Productivity Tip from Jerry Seinfeld

Lifehacker has a good post from a while back giving a very useful productivity tip from Jerry Seinfeld:

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. But his advice was better than that. He had a gem of a leverage technique he used on himself and you can use it to motivate yourself—even when you don’t feel like it.

He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write.

Read the whole thing to get the details on how it works.

The author of the post, Brad Isaac, points out that this technique can be used in many different areas. He’s used it “for exercise, to learn programming, to learn network administration, to build successful websites and build successful businesses.”

I’ve done a variation of this with some things as well, including eating less, trying to read 3 books a day, and getting up super early, and found it to be very effective (though the 3 books a day didn’t last too long!).

You can even implement this technique on your iPhone with the Goalkeep app.

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January 5, 2009 | Filed Under Productivity | 2 Comments 

Comments

2 Responses to “A Productivity Tip from Jerry Seinfeld”

  1. Caleb on January 6th, 2009 8:59 pm

    Thanks, this is a really helpful tip! I have one modification to make, though, which I’m pretty excited to start using.

    Instead of only being able to make one red x per day, allow yourself to mark an x for every pre-defined day’s worth that you do. This means you might be “in March” while still in January. The euphoria of being “ahead” will seriously motivate me.

    Plus, you could use different calendars for different goals. One for reading through books (where each x is so many pages or a chapter), one for writing, one for programming, etc.

  2. Penny Husted-Gamm on January 9th, 2009 1:19 pm

    You know, in today’s society of hyper-achievement and ‘over-night successes’, it’s a good reminder to hone our skills day by day, to be diligent on a daily basis. I find I sometimes get impatient and want what I want RIGHT NOW, but then you look at Seinfeld, and he didn’t get to be a household name over night; he got to be a household name by working diligently day after day. It’s just a good reminder to break that big goal down into daily tasks that will build up to that big goal, and to have patience while getting there.

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