
How Seinfeld's Productivity Secret Fixed My Procrastination Problem - scriptstar
http://lifehacker.com/5886128/how-seinfelds-productivity-secret-fixed-my-procrastination-problem
======
JackMorgan
I know it may elicit eye rolls, but I love using Github's built in "streak"
feature for this exact thing. Best of all, it is public and motivating. I
agree that it is hard to do something highly valuable on a green field project
everyday, so I often work through exercises from textbooks (right now I am in
the middle of SICP) to fill in days when I would otherwise just be
directionless. I used to feel guilty for not "doing enough" to advance my
career, and would "binge code" whenever the guilt built up too much, but now I
feel so much more confident and relaxed, knowing I'm putting in a sustainable
amount of high quality reading and practicing every day.

~~~
scriptstar
But how can we use that streak feature to do some non-programming things like
exercising, flossing the tooth etc? I think it fits for our side projects a
lot but nothing more than that.

There is an app in App store called 'Commit' (Nathan Barry's) which does that.

~~~
j21
I built a web app to do something like this for myself. Now slowly rolling it
out to users other than myself.

[https://jots.me](https://jots.me)

It's not as visual as the Seinfeld calendar but it works great for what I use
it for. I use it to record what I've done for work, my side projects, exercise
logs, etc. I even use it to roughly track expenses.

It keeps me motivated to keep adding entries for my projects, so I guess that
helps with procrastination. At the least it gets me to do something daily so
it can be recorded.

------
Cor
I really like the Seinfeld method. It works surprisingly well for me.

I first came across it when I started using 750words.com, a journaling
website. The website prominently displays your streak at the top of every
page, and there are achievements and rewards for building up longer and longer
streaks. At the moment my streak is at 572 days, which is testament to the
effectiveness of the method.

Unfortunately, the Seinfeld method, in my experience, isn’t perfect.

For me, it’s only really good for small activities that can be done daily for
small amounts of time. I’ve tried using it for work projects on several
occasions (for example, doing 2 hours of extra work a day) and I’ve failed
every time.

I recently came across a fix, though -
[http://beeminder.com](http://beeminder.com)

Beeminder is essentially a more configurable version of the Seinfeld method. I
first tested it on a goal that I’ve tried (and failed) to do several times
before - ‘read and make notes on business books for one hour a day, six days a
week’. Not that hard, but for some reason, I’ve always fallen off the wagon
with this particular goal.

With Beeminder, I found it effortless. There’s something strangely satisfying
about adding data onto the website. I ended up completing 30 days without much
difficulty.

Since then, I’ve added a ton of extra goals with Beeminder, and I’ve been
accomplishing them surprisingly easily. I’ve been gradually ratcheting up the
difficulty on each goal (for example: I recently started with the goal of
‘spend 3 hours working on own projects every week’, and I slowly increased the
goal requirements at a rate of 3 hours extra per week; currently, I’m doing an
extra 24 hours a week without much difficulty on my part), which I find works
really well.

I’ve also started using Beeminder for other goals like ‘meditate for 5 minutes
every morning’, ‘go to the gym 3 times a week’, ‘cook at least 5 new recipes
every week’, 'spend 30 minutes cleaning the apartment 3 times a week', and
it’s worked incredibly well for each of them.

Beeminder has inspired a massive change in me in a surprisingly short amount
of time. I’ve always thought I had a procrastination problem, or that I’m
simply lazy, but Beeminder is showing me that this isn’t the case. I recommend
giving it a go.

~~~
GhotiFish
WOH-HO Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope. That is just a flat out recipe for
massive credit card charges and a boat load of pain.

They have a monetary incentive to interpret your data as failing to meet your
goals. That is a huuuuuuuge amount of trust to bestow on a random company.

~~~
dreeves
It's really important for us to understand this reaction, so I'm glad you
expressed it! It does seem super perverse on first blush. We've written about
this a lot, actually. Eg,
[http://blog.beeminder.com/perverse](http://blog.beeminder.com/perverse) .

Another counterargument is that _any_ company has a monetary incentive to take
your money and then under deliver on what you paid for. Beeminder, like most
companies, is staking its reputation on providing some value that you'll be
happy to pay for and tell others about (like the grandparent post here; thank
you again!) and keep using. In Beeminder's case that value is making you more
productive (or more fit or weigh less, or whatever graphable goal you have).

Eager to hear if that's convincing!

~~~
GhotiFish
I'm glad you guys actually recognize the perverse incentives at work here
and...

    
    
      "Speaking of perverse incentives, we’re often asked about
       our own. It seems that from the perspective of those
       paying us, Beeminder is providing a ton of value and a 
       ton of motivation and the occasional cost of derailment 
       is a fair fee for Beeminder’s service..."
    
      "in other words, Beeminder is putting itself on the map 
       for exactly one reason: it makes people more awesome.
    
       But that can lead to the opposite complaint — that 
       Beeminder’s sting is so valuable as to be 
       self-defeating. In other words, it’s hard to be 
       motivated by the threat of having to pay Beeminder if 
       you feel that Beeminder has already earned that money!"
    

... Ok that only serves to scare me more.

This is a nasty psychological game beeminder is playing. So is GymPact. When
people feel they have failed or they are at fault, a part of them wants to
provide recompense for that failure. Beeminder and GymPact are not the first
to fit this business model. Cable companies do it with wildly obtuse rules,
ugly restriction, and massive overcharge fees, all with the line "Well it was
your fault, it's written in the rules right here!"

That's what I see to be the problem. Beeminder puts itself resolutely in place
as the 'go to' to seek punishment, striking where humans are at their weakest.
Of course, rather than hail Marys, the punishment is money.

The fact is, because beeminder makes its money through my failure, it has a
monetary insensitive to bring about that failure by any means, real or
perceived. [http://darkpatterns.org/](http://darkpatterns.org/) exists for
exactly this reason! On what grounds do I have to believe beeminder would be
immune to such an influence? Because beeminder loves me and wants me to get
better?

That is how I saw it, from the outside looking in. I liked the idea, I really
did, but with beeminder standing to benefit from the pledge, rather than say,
a charity of some kind, I could never trust them.

------
jonmb
I think having a large physical calendar works better for some people, but
there are many excellent apps for using this technique too.

Web:

[http://www.joesgoals.com](http://www.joesgoals.com) \-
[http://www.42goals.com/](http://www.42goals.com/) \-
[https://chains.cc/](https://chains.cc/)

Phone Apps:

Streaks: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/streaks-motivational-
calenda...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/streaks-motivational-
calendar/id345184462?mt=8)

(Free) Goal Master: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/goal-
master/id347105327?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/goal-
master/id347105327?mt=8)

[http://wayoflifeapp.com/](http://wayoflifeapp.com/)

~~~
baby
way too many choices. I don't know which one to start on...

~~~
icebraining
[http://www.random.org/dice/](http://www.random.org/dice/)

------
danso
One of the quick hacks I like to do is create a Google Spreadsheet with my
goals/things-to-do across the top as column headers. As rows, I use dates,
which can easily be generated by starting the first row with today's date and
dragging down.

Then, I use GDoc's Conditional Formatting to color in cells...if there's
anything in them, perhaps a "y", the cell turns green. Makes it very easy to
see how consistent I've been...

If you're not worried about making this task into a whole chore in itself, you
can always add more data in each cell and then analyze it later because, hey,
it's a spreadsheet. But at the very least, you get get an easy visualization
in an app you probably already use frequently and can update from just about
anywhere.

------
MikusR
At least for me the "streak" or chain methods don't work. Because if for any
reason i happen to break the chain the probability of me returning to the task
decreases the longer was the chain. For example i was doing Codecademy, broke
a month long chain - did not return for a year (lost all motivation).

~~~
jacques_chester
The trick is to learn that when you fall off the wagon, it's ok if you get
back on the wagon. What matters is most-of-the-time compliance, not 100.00%
compliance

------
ruricolist
Unfortunately this doesn't work for programming, because in programming we
never really know in advance how long anything is going to take, not even
within an order of magnitude: a five-day problem looks just like a five-minute
problem until it's over. It's the worst thing about programming, the lack of
granularity, and why we're always staying up much too late.

~~~
rwallace
Not really seeing why this can't work even so. Spent an hour ruling out one
possible cause of that intractable bug you've been trying to figure out, then
felt too tired to try anything else? Very well, mark an X for some progress
today.

------
crazygringo
I'm glad that works for some people.

It would never work for me, though. I can't imagine how spending 15 min/day on
a screenplay would be productive at _all_ \-- when I sit down to program, or
write, it takes me that long just to "restore state" and remember what I was
in the middle of previously. I only really find myself becoming productive at
things after the first _hour_ \-- plenty of people call this being in the
"zone", etc.

This might be a good thing to do with fairly menial/brainless tasks, but is it
really useful for more than that? But even with cleaning the house... it seems
so much more efficient to spend an hour every week, when you've got spare
time, than vacuum a room and a half one day, dust half the house the next...

~~~
DigitalJack
You've heard the phrase "perfect is the enemy of good enough?"

I think it applies here. There may be better ways of doing things, but I'd
rather get something done than do nothing, lamenting the fact that the method
at hand isn't the most perfectly efficient way possible.

------
B-Con
I tried doing this for a while (after this or something similar surfaced on HN
a year or so ago) and used Chains[1], but I didn't feel that it helped much.

Honestly, a simple daily todo list as one of my "app" tabs is the best thing
I've found. It puts a simple reminder of whether I've done something or not
close to my face a couple times a day. For me, simply forgetting after I put
it off the first couple times is half the problem.

[1] [http://chains.cc](http://chains.cc)

------
prezjordan
I became obsessed with "the chain" and it made me absolutely miserable [0]. I
imagine it works for some people, though, and I'm glad I tried it out.

[0]: [https://medium.com/lessons-
learned/ab219377be93](https://medium.com/lessons-learned/ab219377be93)

------
cl3m
I've made an iphone app for it like four years ago. It seems to work really
well for some people according to the feedback I've got. I guess it depends if
your goal is well defined and can be done easily everyday. Having such system
helps to keep the inertia. You can get the app for free at:
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dont-break-the-
chain!/id3135...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dont-break-the-
chain!/id313567772?mt=8)

------
ww520
The Seinfeld productivity calendar works, at least it has helped me. So much
so that I've created an Android app based on the idea.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mhillsyste...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mhillsystem.dailybadge)

------
smita622
We built a chrome plugin to make it easy for you to actually get a task on
your calendar from anywhere without stopping your train of thought:
[http://get.spoton.it](http://get.spoton.it)

Using all day events for things you want to check off also totally works.

------
vl
There is a webtool for that:
[http://www.joesgoals.com/](http://www.joesgoals.com/)

I used it for awhile, then gravitated towards GTD lists, which, are, of
course, not that good for periodic tasks. Maybe it's time to try Joe's Goals
again.

------
armini
I had the same issue with procrastination and ended up using www.aznoe.com I
would personally suggest it for anyone with that problem. That list is
available on the web, ios and android so you can alway add to it no matter
where you are.

------
coopdog
And if you miss a day don't forget to say "serenity now!"

------
usernew1817
I wanna know how the author managed to write 30 pages of text in 1hr45mins (15
minutes each day for a week), the most I can manage in that time frame is most
7, 30 is incredible.

~~~
thatthatis
His goals were minimums. Probably there were a few times when he was on a roll
and kept going.

------
scrrr
Procrastination is just being lazy. Laziness is a habit. That person overcame
the habit using this method. Good for him, but this is a somewhat complicated
way of doing it.

~~~
rwallace
Well, the world is full of people doing things in complicated ways because
they find they work better than any simple way they know of.

------
JoeAltmaier
This is a single-person idea. My house is chaotic. Any attempt to do orderly
things is quickly derailed. I've learned to embrace the disorder.

------
iambateman
Ya'll, what amount of time do you find is enough for your streak? I am on day
11 of 1 hour/day working on a startup concept.

------
_sabe_
I used to think I had a procrastination problem, but my problem has never been
getting started. For example, if I come up with a new personal programming
project I dig right into it, and I also keep it up for a long time. But I
still can't manage to follow trough. It's like I settle for such great
perfectionism that everything ends up taking an unreasonable amount of time,
and in the end I give up because it's not practical anymore.

Nobody else who can relate to that?

~~~
visakanv
This is me x1000. Everything I write has to be shipped almost immediately,
because the next day it looks like shit to me.

Random question- did you do really well in school when you were young? If yes,
did you then get progressively worse as it required more prep?

~~~
candydance
That's my life. Did great in school, grades started dropping near the end of
highschool. Instead of learning self discipline my parents got a tutor to help
me focus. Graduated school top of my class, got a full scholarship for a good
college so I moved away from home. Dropped out after a year because I couldn't
handle having no structure.

God it's depressing just typing that out.

~~~
_sabe_
I actually did drop out of University for the same reason too.

~~~
ZirconCode
Exact Same here, I'm in the process of trying to get back on my feet, do you
have any advice on what helped you most?

------
marincounty
I had a girlfriend who loved Seinfield--memorized the episodes, etc. At first
I thought it was because it was a fairly amusing T.V. show, and she grew up in
upstate New York. After a lot of thought I realized the reason she loved the
show is because it affirmed her selfish behavior.

If you don't know what I mean; you might want to reexamine how you interact
with the world? Ya, I', talking about you Wendy.

------
vonskippy
Must be a Gen Y thing (or whatever you call 20 somethings these days). I'm
afraid to me, it seems exceedingly childish to need something like a chain of
Red X's in order to get something as simple as "workout" or "clean" or "do
job" or "work" done on a consistent basis. It's called SELF DISCIPLINE and
it's really not rocket science. Now get off my lawn.

~~~
Permit
>It's called SELF DISCIPLINE and it's really not rocket science.

Do you think self discipline is inherent or learned? If it's inherent, then
you can't fault an individual without it.

If it's learned, how does one acquire it? It seems like programs like this are
the "Gen Y" approach to learning self discipline.

Perhaps the baby-boomers learned it from their families, whereas Gen Y did
not. Which (if anything) speaks volumes about the parenting quality of your
generation ;)

