6 ms·

Jerry Seinfeld's Productivity Secret

148 points by mcantor 17y ago

gr366 17y ago
This has been floating around the internet for a while, but it's good to come across again. I'm impressed by the level of simplicity to which the technique has been distilled. Notice that it wasn't necessary to write a book about the productivity system — it can be explained in a paragraph. On a side note, I believe there are a number of iPhone apps that implement this system.
- benatkin 17y ago
  > On a side note, I believe there are a number of iPhone apps that implement this system. I can verify this. I use Streaks, which may have been the first one. It has support for multiple calendars (for different goals), which kind of breaks the simplicity of Jerry's approach. I might cut it down to one calendar/goal. http://fanzter.com/products/streaks http://fanzter.com/products/streaks
jdrock 17y ago
Yep, a fairly well-known technique, albeit with a different implementation. I would be more intrigued, though, to learn how to discipline your mind to do a task when it needs to be done (right now or at some later specific time). It seems that would take a lot more mental fortitude. Example: I should get gas in my car on the way home from work. I don't need to, but it would help. A few hours later.. eh, I'm hungry, I'll get gas in the morning. Next day, late for work because I had to get gas. How do I discipline my mind to get gas when I should have? Silly example, but it's what came to mind first.
- gcheong 17y ago
  One idea is to train yourself to be aware of the fact that even though you may not feel like doing something, you can decide to do it regardless of your feelings. Taking your example, you could have said, I'm hungry but I'm going to get gas first.
- awa 17y ago
  Use triggers for the above problem. Decide on a gas level you should refill and use don't break the chain approach to always refill on the same level.
- purui 17y ago
  Setup a chain to 'do a thing you dont like' everyday. Soon you'll be able to control yourself.
- scott_s 17y ago
  Commit to it. Don't just think "I should do this..." Decide that you're going to do it, and plan for it.
teej 17y ago
There's a web app version of this system available (http://dontbreakthechain.com/ http://dontbreakthechain.com/) as well as an iPhone version made by a HNer (http://appshopper.com/productivity/dont-break-the-chain http://appshopper.com/productivity/dont-break-the-chain)
- shib71 17y ago
  I prefer http://www.joesgoals.com/ http://www.joesgoals.com/ - it allows you to set up multiple chains and manage them from a single page.
  - matthew-wegner 17y ago
    Joe's Goals is great because you can do negative goals too ("checked email off-schedule", "browsed HN during work hours", etc). It's compelling to see if you can beat your numeric value from the previous day.
  - prawn 17y ago
    Thanks. Signed up and giving it a shot. Positive goals: push-ups, reading, cooking. Negative goals: playing a game of Freecell. ;)
babyboy808 17y ago
Trying out a slightly different method here: my calendar here: http://www.keithdonegan.com/2010-calendar/ http://www.keithdonegan.com/2010-calendar/ Basically the cal has to have ALOT more green boxes than red. Green = no junk day with food. Red = Yes, you guessed it, I gave in to temptation.
jbellis 17y ago
I can't actually find a "year on one page" calendar on Amazon. Do they still make such things in these days of digital organization?
- access_denied 17y ago
  http://davidseah.com/blog/compact-calendar/ http://davidseah.com/blog/compact-calendar/
- tdmackey 17y ago
  http://www.amazon.com/At-Glance-Reversible-Horizontal-PM326-28/dp/B002FYK8J2/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=office-products&qid=1262750332&sr=1-9 http://www.amazon.com/At-Glance-Reversible-Horizontal-PM326-... At A Glance is the typical big name retail company that manufactures these types of things.
- dgquintas 17y ago
  While probably not as fancy, I just printed one of the templates available at http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/yearly-calendar.html http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/yearly-calendar.html on an A3 sheet, only because I didn't have access to a plotter for some bigger sizes. Looks good enough, though.
r11t 17y ago
Seinfeld's Calendar + Github = http://calendaraboutnothing.com/ http://calendaraboutnothing.com/ "The Calendar About Nothing generates a "Seinfeld Calendar" from your public "Github" feed."
- antileet 17y ago
  I've been doing something similar to this for quite some time. I made a Google-docs form containing boolean-answer questions regarding whether I did any of the things I aimed to do regularly (running, writing code, good interaction with people, etc), and wrote a script to remind myself to do it every night via email. Answering "No" to a question put a nasty red mark on the generated spreadsheet, which led to a huge motivator as to avoid the nasty red marks on the otherwise clean spreadsheet. Now, after doing this for almost exactly a year, I can claim that this system works quite well for me. I'm going to make this into a full-fledged app inspired by the "Calendar about nothing".
jrockway 17y ago
Once you fail, isn't it easy to continue to fail? "Oh well, I broke that chain of 100 days. I'll probably never get that many again, so I'll just give up now." Playing mind games with yourself is rarely effective. If you want to write every day, just write every day.
- Jach 17y ago
  And if you want to be a start-up billionaire, just be a start-up billionaire. True, but not very useful advice. (Though I'm not sure what useful advice for that one would look like. Perhaps better: if you want to get good grades, just get good grades.)
  - arketyp 17y ago
    The point is that what should motivate you is your ultimate goal or dream, not a mental trick.
    - waterlesscloud 17y ago
      The problem here is that the mind works by mental tricks. Just because you don't think of them as tricks doesn't mean they aren't. Don't you think it would be better to select the tricks that operate your brain by intention rather than by accident?
      - arketyp 17y ago
        I don't necessarily agree to saying that the mind works by mental tricks, but that's mostly semantics. I do think it's generally better to operate by intention, and I also think that those intentions should be based on sound values and rigid beliefs and dreams.
  - gcheong 17y ago
    The difference with your examples is that writing jokes every day is a fairly well defined, specific, verifiable, action. Getting good grades, "being" a start-up billionaire are not. I can't see you in the state of getting good grades, but I could see you study a little each day with the result that you get good grades.
jonknee 17y ago
I have a dry erase calendar on the wall next to my desk that I do this with. It's great to see a bunch of Xs up there at the end of the week.
romland 17y ago
It made me chuckle that when reading the article I could actually hear Seinfeld say "Don't break the chain!". Unique voice, unique character.
- j3fft 17y ago
  what's the deal with chains? I mean, everyone always wants to break them.
sganesh 17y ago
www.dontbreakthechain.com
- sketerpot 17y ago
  I like the tangibility of a calendar. Even if it's just a PDF calendar that I printed out for that month.
Harj 17y ago
i thought this would be a good idea for a twitter app - something like you tweet your goal then each day you tweet what you did towards it and if you didn't it'd auto tweet that you broke the chain. idea being you don't want your friends to know you broke it. there's obvious flaws but if someone is interested in it, i have the domain twitchain.com and won't get around to making this anytime soon so if you can have it if you want to build something like this.
Keyframe 17y ago
When I was in the navy (conscripted) for almost a year, we had pocket sized calendars like that (with nude women on the other side, of course). Each day I could cross the day I was there, it was a major topic for discussion/bragging and a huge motivation to go through the boring conscription.
- KC8ZKF 17y ago
  We wore "short timers chains" on our belt loops when we only had a few months left. Small brass chains with one link for every day we had left. We would dike one link off the end every day. Breaking the chain was something we looked forward to.
mattm 17y ago
Watch the documentary "Comedian" for more on Jerry's work habits. It partially follows him and another comedian during the time after the Seinfeld show had ended and he was getting back into stand up.
vlad 17y ago
This is a tip I picked up maybe ten years ago from bodybuilding (with the exception of having a rest day every five days or so, which is considered good practice.) If you miss more than one day in a row, it can be very hard to get back into the routine. Good to see this reposted every six months on Hacker News. I'm still planning on writing an app to help the user track goals this way. :)
- tigerthink 17y ago
  There's already a perfectly good app at http://dontbreakthechain.com/ http://dontbreakthechain.com/
  - nileshtrivedi 17y ago
    There is also http://dailystamp.r09.railsrumble.com/ http://dailystamp.r09.railsrumble.com/ from Rails Rumble.
marcamillion 17y ago
I nearly never read this...but am so glad I did.
tezza 17y ago
Jerry: The trick is, you don't break the chain. George: Don't break the chain? Jerry: Don't break the chain! Kramer: I broke the chain... Jerry: You broke the chain?! Kramer: I broke the chain, Jerry, I did.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- gclaramunt 17y ago
  Jerry: You broke the chain! The chain isn't supposed to be broken!!! Now what are you going to do? You broke it...
  - prat 17y ago
    you just overdid it man .. :) if you were tezza, I would have advised you to "leave on a high note"
chipsy 17y ago
I have a small twist on this system, which is that I have a huge pool of tasks in a text file with headers for each day, and as I go through the day I pull out parts of tasklists and mark them "# DONE" as they are finished. Thus by the end of each day, each week, each month, I have an increasingly impressive list of accomplishment, even if the actual tasks are small 5-minute things. I don't try to hit a target number of tasks or a quality of task, I just do what's available that day. One month in, I haven't missed a single day.

148 points by mcantor 17y ago

gr366 17y ago

This has been floating around the internet for a while, but it's good to come across again. I'm impressed by the level of simplicity to which the technique has been distilled. Notice that it wasn't necessary to write a book about the productivity system — it can be explained in a paragraph. On a side note, I believe there are a number of iPhone apps that implement this system.

benatkin 17y ago
> On a side note, I believe there are a number of iPhone apps that implement this system. I can verify this. I use Streaks, which may have been the first one. It has support for multiple calendars (for different goals), which kind of breaks the simplicity of Jerry's approach. I might cut it down to one calendar/goal. http://fanzter.com/products/streaks http://fanzter.com/products/streaks

jdrock 17y ago

Yep, a fairly well-known technique, albeit with a different implementation. I would be more intrigued, though, to learn how to discipline your mind to do a task when it needs to be done (right now or at some later specific time). It seems that would take a lot more mental fortitude. Example: I should get gas in my car on the way home from work. I don't need to, but it would help. A few hours later.. eh, I'm hungry, I'll get gas in the morning. Next day, late for work because I had to get gas. How do I discipline my mind to get gas when I should have? Silly example, but it's what came to mind first.

gcheong 17y ago
One idea is to train yourself to be aware of the fact that even though you may not feel like doing something, you can decide to do it regardless of your feelings. Taking your example, you could have said, I'm hungry but I'm going to get gas first.
awa 17y ago
Use triggers for the above problem. Decide on a gas level you should refill and use don't break the chain approach to always refill on the same level.
purui 17y ago
Setup a chain to 'do a thing you dont like' everyday. Soon you'll be able to control yourself.
scott_s 17y ago
Commit to it. Don't just think "I should do this..." Decide that you're going to do it, and plan for it.

teej 17y ago

There's a web app version of this system available (http://dontbreakthechain.com/ http://dontbreakthechain.com/) as well as an iPhone version made by a HNer (http://appshopper.com/productivity/dont-break-the-chain http://appshopper.com/productivity/dont-break-the-chain)

shib71 17y ago
I prefer http://www.joesgoals.com/ http://www.joesgoals.com/ - it allows you to set up multiple chains and manage them from a single page.
- matthew-wegner 17y ago
  Joe's Goals is great because you can do negative goals too ("checked email off-schedule", "browsed HN during work hours", etc). It's compelling to see if you can beat your numeric value from the previous day.
- prawn 17y ago
  Thanks. Signed up and giving it a shot. Positive goals: push-ups, reading, cooking. Negative goals: playing a game of Freecell. ;)

babyboy808 17y ago

Trying out a slightly different method here: my calendar here: http://www.keithdonegan.com/2010-calendar/ http://www.keithdonegan.com/2010-calendar/ Basically the cal has to have ALOT more green boxes than red. Green = no junk day with food. Red = Yes, you guessed it, I gave in to temptation.

jbellis 17y ago

I can't actually find a "year on one page" calendar on Amazon. Do they still make such things in these days of digital organization?

access_denied 17y ago
http://davidseah.com/blog/compact-calendar/ http://davidseah.com/blog/compact-calendar/
tdmackey 17y ago
http://www.amazon.com/At-Glance-Reversible-Horizontal-PM326-28/dp/B002FYK8J2/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=office-products&qid=1262750332&sr=1-9 http://www.amazon.com/At-Glance-Reversible-Horizontal-PM326-... At A Glance is the typical big name retail company that manufactures these types of things.
dgquintas 17y ago
While probably not as fancy, I just printed one of the templates available at http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/yearly-calendar.html http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/yearly-calendar.html on an A3 sheet, only because I didn't have access to a plotter for some bigger sizes. Looks good enough, though.

r11t 17y ago

Seinfeld's Calendar + Github = http://calendaraboutnothing.com/ http://calendaraboutnothing.com/ "The Calendar About Nothing generates a "Seinfeld Calendar" from your public "Github" feed."

antileet 17y ago
I've been doing something similar to this for quite some time. I made a Google-docs form containing boolean-answer questions regarding whether I did any of the things I aimed to do regularly (running, writing code, good interaction with people, etc), and wrote a script to remind myself to do it every night via email. Answering "No" to a question put a nasty red mark on the generated spreadsheet, which led to a huge motivator as to avoid the nasty red marks on the otherwise clean spreadsheet. Now, after doing this for almost exactly a year, I can claim that this system works quite well for me. I'm going to make this into a full-fledged app inspired by the "Calendar about nothing".

jrockway 17y ago

Once you fail, isn't it easy to continue to fail? "Oh well, I broke that chain of 100 days. I'll probably never get that many again, so I'll just give up now." Playing mind games with yourself is rarely effective. If you want to write every day, just write every day.

Jach 17y ago
And if you want to be a start-up billionaire, just be a start-up billionaire. True, but not very useful advice. (Though I'm not sure what useful advice for that one would look like. Perhaps better: if you want to get good grades, just get good grades.)
- arketyp 17y ago
  The point is that what should motivate you is your ultimate goal or dream, not a mental trick.
  - waterlesscloud 17y ago
    The problem here is that the mind works by mental tricks. Just because you don't think of them as tricks doesn't mean they aren't. Don't you think it would be better to select the tricks that operate your brain by intention rather than by accident?
    - arketyp 17y ago
      I don't necessarily agree to saying that the mind works by mental tricks, but that's mostly semantics. I do think it's generally better to operate by intention, and I also think that those intentions should be based on sound values and rigid beliefs and dreams.
- gcheong 17y ago
  The difference with your examples is that writing jokes every day is a fairly well defined, specific, verifiable, action. Getting good grades, "being" a start-up billionaire are not. I can't see you in the state of getting good grades, but I could see you study a little each day with the result that you get good grades.

jonknee 17y ago

I have a dry erase calendar on the wall next to my desk that I do this with. It's great to see a bunch of Xs up there at the end of the week.

romland 17y ago

It made me chuckle that when reading the article I could actually hear Seinfeld say "Don't break the chain!". Unique voice, unique character.

j3fft 17y ago
what's the deal with chains? I mean, everyone always wants to break them.

sganesh 17y ago

www.dontbreakthechain.com

sketerpot 17y ago
I like the tangibility of a calendar. Even if it's just a PDF calendar that I printed out for that month.

Harj 17y ago

i thought this would be a good idea for a twitter app - something like you tweet your goal then each day you tweet what you did towards it and if you didn't it'd auto tweet that you broke the chain. idea being you don't want your friends to know you broke it. there's obvious flaws but if someone is interested in it, i have the domain twitchain.com and won't get around to making this anytime soon so if you can have it if you want to build something like this.

Keyframe 17y ago

When I was in the navy (conscripted) for almost a year, we had pocket sized calendars like that (with nude women on the other side, of course). Each day I could cross the day I was there, it was a major topic for discussion/bragging and a huge motivation to go through the boring conscription.

KC8ZKF 17y ago
We wore "short timers chains" on our belt loops when we only had a few months left. Small brass chains with one link for every day we had left. We would dike one link off the end every day. Breaking the chain was something we looked forward to.

mattm 17y ago

Watch the documentary "Comedian" for more on Jerry's work habits. It partially follows him and another comedian during the time after the Seinfeld show had ended and he was getting back into stand up.

vlad 17y ago

This is a tip I picked up maybe ten years ago from bodybuilding (with the exception of having a rest day every five days or so, which is considered good practice.) If you miss more than one day in a row, it can be very hard to get back into the routine. Good to see this reposted every six months on Hacker News. I'm still planning on writing an app to help the user track goals this way. :)

tigerthink 17y ago
There's already a perfectly good app at http://dontbreakthechain.com/ http://dontbreakthechain.com/
- nileshtrivedi 17y ago
  There is also http://dailystamp.r09.railsrumble.com/ http://dailystamp.r09.railsrumble.com/ from Rails Rumble.

marcamillion 17y ago

I nearly never read this...but am so glad I did.

tezza 17y ago

Jerry: The trick is, you don't break the chain. George: Don't break the chain? Jerry: Don't break the chain! Kramer: I broke the chain... Jerry: You broke the chain?! Kramer: I broke the chain, Jerry, I did.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
gclaramunt 17y ago
Jerry: You broke the chain! The chain isn't supposed to be broken!!! Now what are you going to do? You broke it...
- prat 17y ago
  you just overdid it man .. :) if you were tezza, I would have advised you to "leave on a high note"

chipsy 17y ago

I have a small twist on this system, which is that I have a huge pool of tasks in a text file with headers for each day, and as I go through the day I pull out parts of tasklists and mark them "# DONE" as they are finished. Thus by the end of each day, each week, each month, I have an increasingly impressive list of accomplishment, even if the actual tasks are small 5-minute things. I don't try to hit a target number of tasks or a quality of task, I just do what's available that day. One month in, I haven't missed a single day.