The “Seinfeld Strategy”, Getting Stuck and Moving On

There is a famous productivity method called the “Seinfeld Strategy”. Made popular by James Clear’s blog post “How to Stop Procrastinating on Your Goals by Using the “Seinfeld Strategy””, he outlines a habit-building method that Jerry Seinfeld used to beat procrastination and become a better comedian.

Seinfeld would write a new joke each day, and whenever he accomplished this he would put a big red cross on a calendar, and over time his calendar would become a long chain of red crosses - a visual representation of keeping the chain going and building a new habit over time.

This is a format that I myself have attempted to adhere to, but have encountered a flaw in my own understanding of it. Due to life circumstances such as parenting responsibilities and various projects I’m a part of, there are some tasks I wasn’t able to complete - thus breaking the chain. And a broken chain was considered a failure. And the more times I broke the chain, the less inclined I felt to try and continue completing the chain.

One of my personal Bible study projects I’m doing at the moment is reading the whole Bible in 3 months. I’m about halfway through the Bible, and it's taken me 6 months to do it. Quick maths - I’m not keeping a very good chain for this.

Initially, I kept noticing the failure to stick to this particular reading plan and would feel a sense of guilt or shame for not sticking to it. But I actively decided to keep picking up where I left off, even after days or even weeks of not doing my planning reading.

What Did I Do About It

What I’ve discovered is a greater sense of accomplishment not necessarily in keeping a long continuous chain of success, but being able to restart the chain and pick it up again. Instead of feeling bad for not sticking to the plan, I’ve learned to focus on accepting that I’m not able to achieve each goal I’ve set at this stage of life and trying to be more resilient and pick up again.

This is something that can apply to a lot of areas of life, but in discussions with various people who are trying to get better at studying and meditating on the Bible, I’ve found that the sense of not keeping up at a daily pace and completing a metaphorical chain can turn them away from studying and learning altogether.

But what if your focus wasn’t on keeping a chain going, but restarting a chain when it breaks?

My measure of success now isn’t how long the chain is, but how often I start it going again.

Now What?

So what do I do to restart the chain when I can’t be bothered?

Pray

• Take some time aside to align yourself with God and pray with others.

• This is a create an authentic prayer life that puts your frustrations and cares on God (Psalm 55:22)

Reduce your expectations

• Very often I’ve set my goals and expectations too high without really thinking about current circumstances

• Reducing expectations isn’t a failure, its adjusting to what you’re able to do in this season

Reduce your amount of study

• I’d love to study an hour a day, but with my kids waking up earlier and me getting tired at night, it’s not going to happen.

• But I can do 10 minutes a day, and 10 minutes a day can add up over a year to a lot of new knowledge and experience/

Shift things up

• If you’re struggling to study the way you want, change the format.

• Instead of reading, listen to an audio Bible.

• Create a clean workspace to eliminate mental distractions

Hopefully, this helps in your own journey of building your Bible Roadmap!