Productivity techniques posted in jhocking Published May 28, 2025 Imported Advertisement Before I started writing my upcoming latest book, I decided I needed to take steps to ensure the writing process wouldn’t be as draining as it was when I wrote my first book. In particular, I ended up with a really ridiculous work schedule, where I would procrastinate for an entire week and then stay up all night to write another chapter. I even booked a hotel room a couple times, so I could stay up all night without bothering anyone else!My wife suggested that, and it was a good idea at the time, but I definitely didn’t want to be doing anything like that now (especially since I have kids now). So in advance of starting to write I planned out some productivity techniques I would follow. I planned out a layered approach, but it all rested on the “Don’t Break the Chain” method and this calendar:“Don’t Break the Chain” is very simple in concept. When you have some long-term project you need to work on consistently (like writing a book), get a physical calendar and mark an X every day you work on the project. Pretty soon you’ll have a chain of X’s, at which point your goal is to keep the chain going.This technique is sometimes called “The Seinfeld Method” because the earliest explanation attributed the tip to comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Interestingly however, he laughed off the suggestion when directly asked if he had come up with it. While he dismissed it as “the dumbest non-idea”, I’ve been finding it extremely useful! As the photo above depicts, I got a standing desk calendar and have been marking off every day this month.It works because you have a very visible reminder, and the consistency turns the work into a habit. That last point is very similar to the concept of “No Zero Days”, where you always do something (ANYTHING! even something tiny) on your project every single day. Consistent work is the key to completing a long-term project (writing a book, developing a game, whatever) so turning it into a habit is important to keep from procrastinating. If you can’t muster the time/energy to do something big, then do something small. Just do something!Choosing your calendar is kinda important for this method. The original tip used a wall calendar, but I prefer having it on my desk. The original tip also had an entire year visible at once (versus seeing a month at a time), and that does have the advantage of not hiding the previous month when flipping the page, but in practice that doesn’t matter that much. Just make sure that it is both highly visible (and this almost certainly means a physical calendar, because a digital calendar wouldn’t be sitting out in the open) and keeps a record of what came before (so not one of those calendars where you tear off the sheets).As I mentioned up top, I had actually planned out a layered approach to productivity. Y’see, “Don’t Break the Chain” works great for getting you to work every day, but isn’t granular enough to plan what you’re doing throughout the day. Thus I was planning to do “Don’t Break the Chain” to start working every day, and then do the Pomodoro Technique to chunk up my tasks in the day. In practice however I haven’t found that necessary, and I haven’t actually been doing pomodoros.Ultimately every person and every project is different, so don’t just assume one productivity tip will work for your project. Instead, gather up a bunch of options and try them all out, blending them together when it makes sense or discarding the ones you don’t need after all.Read more Previous Entry I started writing a new Book! Comments Nobody has left a comment. You can be the first! You must log in to join the conversation. Don't have a GameDev.net account? Sign up!