Somewhere posted in Facebook or in an article I read, I bumped into a story about a technique comedian Jerry Seinfeld uses to make sure he keeps writing new material. Seinfeld shared early in his career, he realized the importance of consistent action. He decided he needed to write every day. In order to ensure the success of this endeavor, he bought a wall calendar and every day he successfully wrote he marked the calendar with an X. Day after day, X after X, it created the image of an unbroken chain.

Don't break the chain

The secret to success was to not break the chain. My observation is another key point is he was in control of keeping the chain going. As a safety speaker, I am familiar with the signs at many locations that keep track of the number of days since the last injury. While this is a chain, it isn’t one over which you have complete control. We all know there are many activities we can do every day that we do control and will have a positive impact on safety.

What activities can you commit to doing every day that would make a difference in the safety of others?

What activities would make a difference in your career and your personal life?

Make sure you pick action items that are significant and you know you can keep going to create a chain. I was helping someone with what they wanted to keep track of and I had them change one that would have been very hard to do every day. The nature of their job meant interruptions would likely cause her to skip a day quite often and having a broken chain might be demotivating.

This technique has become so popular there are several APPS for your smart phone that allow you to mark an X every day and keep the chain going. It’s the high tech version of the calendar with an X.

Give it a try and watch your productivity jump.

Until next week,
I'll be, "Watching Out For Everyone's Safety™"
John