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Optimizing your life to squeeze in new goals can be tricky. I love when I find lightweight, actionable advice for doing something I already do just a little bit better.
It’s so easy to get lost in the sea of tasks of your normal life but that means so many of the best laid plans for new habits will fall to the wayside.
Whenever you are trying to implement a new habit in your life, or a new goal, one of the best ways to keep yourself motivated is having personal accountability.
Goal tracking is a simple yet highly effective strategy for sticking to new habits that move you closer to what you want. There are a lot of ways of going about this but for this post I’m going to share one simple method that is not only satisfying, but also easy to implement.
Don’t break the chain
This method is originally credited to Jerry Seinfeld though I read about it in a little book called “Get Organized: Do More In Less Time”, by Clara Conlon. The book is an Audible Original and is available as a free listen in the Plus Catalog if you have Audible Plus.
The technique involves you, a calendar, and a marker or pen.
The goal is to do 10 minutes of “the thing” you are trying to add into your life every day and mark it down on your calendar with a big X, and don’t break the chain.
You can use a paper calendar you hang somewhere prominent so that you see it often. Giving yourself a 10 minute goal gives you a micro time slot that makes it nearly impossible to make excuses that you can’t fit in the thing.
You can do more, if you have more time, but commit to ten minutes.
We can all confront ten minutes of something and work it into our day.
The satisfaction of seeing the big chain of Xs on the calendar is a big deal. It actually creates reward chemicals in your brain that reinforces the activity for you.
Make sure you can see the Xs prominently. Having a paper calendar for this is great but if you use another daily calendar tool such as Google Calendar or productivity tool with a calendar view such as ClickUp then by all means, work the Xs into your daily workflow. Just make sure you keep those Xs where you can see them.
Flexing your commitment muscle
Reinforcing your motivation this way builds inner trust in yourself that you can commit and execute self-instructions. That trust spreads to other elements in your life and has positive effects on self-esteem and confidence.
You are your own true boss and your own best employee. You have the power!
Rewarding yourself
Yes, seeing all those Xs in an unbroken chain is powerful personal satisfaction. Feel free to give yourself an extra reward on top of that for major milestones or goal posts.
Make it good. Make sure you do the reward and give yourself permission to enjoy it completely.
Summary
- Get a calendar and a pen.
- Commit to the task for ten minutes each day.
- Mark it done on your calendar with a big X.
- Don’t break the chain.
- Give yourself a nice reward at special milestones.
I hope you enjoyed this article and see you next time.
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