Take 5

Jerry Seinfeld

Got a goal you want to accomplish? We found this simple but surprisingly effective "Seinfeld productivity system" at lifehacker.com.

Back in the days when Jerry Seinfeld was still a touring comic, future programmer Brad Isaac asked him if he had any tips for a young comic.

"(Seinfeld) 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 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."

"It works because it isn't the one-shot pushes that get us where we want to go, it is the consistent daily action that builds extraordinary outcomes. You may have heard 'inch by inch anything's a cinch.' Inch by inch does work if you can move an inch every day."

Read the whole thing at tinyurl.com/2we3v8. Then get moving.