Staying productive is any small business owner’s objective during the workday, especially since there are a large number of distractions and multitasking that are inherent in running a small business.
Use the productivity tool known as the Seinfeld Strategy, or Don’t Break the Chain method. This powerful tool will help you develop habits that will help your small business stay on track.
The Don’t Break the Chain Method is a productivity strategy that makes you commit to completing daily tasks by marking the calendar with an “x.” This leads to a chain of x’s that extends days, weeks, or even months.
Psychologically speaking, the steak of accomplishments is rewarding and will encourage you to keep adding to the chain.
While comedian Jerry Seinfeld has denied starting this method, it is rumored that someone on his writing team came up with the system. It was first connected to the comedian in a Lifehacker article published in 2007.
As the story is told, as an up-and-coming stand-up comedian, Seinfeld gave advice to a colleague about his productivity technique – writing every day. To keep motivation levels high, he advised them to purchase a full-year calendar and place it on the wall. Every day that the comedian wrote a joke for his routine, he would write an “x” on the calendar, and his incentive to “not break the chain” allowed him to make gains in his comedy career.
While the particular inventor of this habit-building hack doesn’t matter, what matters is that it works. This method helps you develop habits that will improve your productivity. By marking a calendar it will help keep you accountable, as well as a tangible way to see your progress and daily accomplishments.
There are many benefits of not breaking the chain. Developing habits that will help boost your productivity will not only benefit your small business but your personal life as well. Learn more about the benefits of don’t break the chain:
Marking an “x” on the calendar gives you a sense of accomplishment. It’s a tangible way to reward yourself after completing a task. Being able to see your progress will keep you motivated to not “break the chain” of marks on your calendar. This momentum will help you to continue your daily task to completion.
According to Healthline , it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days for you to form a new habit. By keeping motivated to mark your calendar, the chain will grow longer and it will help you get into a certain routine, which will lead to developing a positive habit.
Creating big goals for your small business is always a good idea, but sometimes smaller goals get lost in the shuffle and you miss keeping track and celebrating them. Habit-building tools like this allow you to micro-focus on the small wins, which will lead you on the path to your big wins.
Being deliberate with your time is an important part of time management. By setting a goal for the day and having a tangible way to track it as complete will improve your time management.
Don’t Break the Chain, allows you to be more aware of what needs to get done and gives you an instant reward with the marking of the calendar. This gives a definitive start and end to your specific task, allowing you to plan out your day and manage your time better.
All you need is a calendar, a marker, and a blank wall to use this production method. No fees or subscriptions or apps. The simplicity of this method allows you to focus on the task at hand, and not have to worry about technical issues that may arise from using an app.
Follow these steps below to set your own goals and start using this productivity hack to get more out of your business.
Whether you’re planning out a strategy or something more creative like designing new jewelry or working on blog posts for your site, deciding on your final goal is essential for this work. Focus on the big picture, then create a small chain of tasks that you can complete every day that will help you create your chain.
The daily goal that will help you not break the chain, should be something that will help you reach your overall goal. Let’s say your overall goal is to increase brand awareness for your small business. Building chains of tasks to accomplish this is to write a blog post every day and publish it on your company website.
When you start on a goal, it is important to set a timeframe. Continuing with the increasing brand awareness example, you should create a benchmark to measure your success. This could be your rankings in Google search results or social media engagement.
Your timeline should look like this: “I will write a new blog post a day for the next 3 months to ensure my website ranking on Google’s results is in the top 10 in related search queries.”
This is the key part of this habit-building tool. Marking an “x” on the calendar is crucial to help you keep up the momentum and keep your motivation high. With each passing day as you mark the calendar, you are building positive habits and helping your company achieve the overall goal that you set.
There are many ways that this productivity technique can help you and your small business. From writing blog posts to creating new jewelry designs, even if you don’t use the designs or publish all the blog posts, the daily completion of the task will help you keep focused on your overall goal for your small business. The fact is, Don’t Break the Chain is a good way to develop a daily habit that will benefit your business.
Your benefits from this habit chain will continue to grow longer every day. One way to not break the chain and keep a detailed eye on your business’s finances is by using QuickBooks accounting software every day to track expenses, send invoices, and generate financial statements and reports.
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