Since we're all sharing, the concept of tracking progress by the day as popularized (but not created) by Jerry Seinfeld[1] has helped me quite a bit.
What also helped is realizing there isn't a silver bullet or magic pill that will get me to do the work: the work has to be done, and I have to do it at some point.
I started a few spreadsheets for things I'd like to log: amount of piano practice per day (aim for 30m), amount of script pages written now that I've transitioned away from programming, the amount of laps I swam that day, etc.
It feels appropriately "bad" to keep filling in the cells with "0". And looking at the "streaks" I have keeps me going.
Here are example pics of some of my spreadsheets, maybe this could be useful to some:
Conditional formatting reminds me of various thresholds per day and per week. Red = below minimum, yellow = at or slightly above the minimum, green = above the minimum
He denies that he created the idea, but he has spoken about it ("making an X on a calendar"). In his mind it probably seemed like a simple observation (he's pretty good at those), and I could imagine he was surprised people took it to a near-religion ("the Seinfeld productivity program").
I'm not sure it's accurate to say he denies "that he ever had anything to do" with it, but his comment there is vague enough to be read either way I suppose.
I think you're misinterpreting him. All he's saying is that its ridiculous that he simply crosses something off on a calendar and people are acting like he created a brilliant productivity system.
He finds it hilarious presumably because people have been crossing things off on calendars probably since calendars and writing implements both existed at the same time.
Yeah, whether you like his humour or not, Seinfeld's insights into consistently producing are great, and the dude has consistently produced for a looong time.
What also helped is realizing there isn't a silver bullet or magic pill that will get me to do the work: the work has to be done, and I have to do it at some point.
I started a few spreadsheets for things I'd like to log: amount of piano practice per day (aim for 30m), amount of script pages written now that I've transitioned away from programming, the amount of laps I swam that day, etc.
It feels appropriately "bad" to keep filling in the cells with "0". And looking at the "streaks" I have keeps me going.
Here are example pics of some of my spreadsheets, maybe this could be useful to some:
Piano Log: https://i.imgur.com/H0TbSSC.png
Writing Log: https://i.imgur.com/6Qb7Dka.png (not doing as well there, clearly...)
Conditional formatting reminds me of various thresholds per day and per week. Red = below minimum, yellow = at or slightly above the minimum, green = above the minimum
1. https://lifehacker.com/how-seinfelds-productivity-secret-fix...