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How to Stop Procrastinating on Your Goals by Using the “Seinfeld Strategy”

jamesclear.com

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Re: How to Stop Procrastinating on Your Goals by Using the “Seinfeld Strategy”

#11

Post by JackMorgan »

themodelplumber wrote: post #7

This is interesting to me because Seinfeld is a stabilizer-rationalist in general temperament. (Even if he didn't invent it, the concept REALLY fits his style well) He will generally tend to give you bell-curve advice based on stabilizing a routine. Seinfeld likes Cheerios and Superman and the old stand-bys and so on. This is a bell-curve person who sees that curve, socially and behaviorally speaking, as finding sani…

Is the term "stabilizer rationalist" just off the cuff, or is it something from a larger categorization, perhaps from a book?

Re: How to Stop Procrastinating on Your Goals by Using the “Seinfeld Strategy”

#12

Post by themodelplumber »

JackMorgan wrote: post #11
themodelplumber wrote: post #7

This is interesting to me because Seinfeld is a stabilizer-rationalist in general temperament. (Even if he didn't invent it, the concept REALLY fits his style well) He will generally tend to give you bell-curve advice based on stabilizing a routine. Seinfeld likes Cheerios and Superman and the old stand-bys and so on. This is a bell-curve person who sees that curve, socially and behaviorally speaking, as finding sani…

Is the term "stabilizer rationalist" just off the cuff, or is it something from a larger categorization, perhaps from a book?

Both. If you want an introduction to the topic framed objectively, you'll want to start with Linda Berens, David Keirsey, etc. They will use words like those. Linda taught me about this stuff, and my own coach connected me to Keirsey's work. See the upper-right quadrant in the table on this page:

https://lindaberens.com/resources/methodology-articles/tempe...

Groups of people like you find in tech communities, for contrast, are usually found in that lower-left zone.

But also, they are words that I use for my own work because they fit really well and offer a lot of reliable leverage in context. So I am not using these to reference the work of those particular individuals so much as I'm using them because they fit and also because I like them. In fact Linda might tilt her head at my use of rationalist along with stabilizer, until she understands what I mean by that (social bell curve; this is connected to Jungian and post-Jungian theory as well).

Re: How to Stop Procrastinating on Your Goals by Using the “Seinfeld Strategy”

#13

Post by avg_dev »

The funniest part of all this is it’s not true that Seinfeld ever said that.

1. Read the footnote in the article

2. Read this Reddit post by Jerry Seinfeld https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/comment/ceitfx...

I mean I definitely have increased my own skills over time by being consistent, but this is definitely a fake claim.

Re: How to Stop Procrastinating on Your Goals by Using the “Seinfeld Strategy”

#17

Post by Kaze404 »

Pxtl wrote: post #6

If you're into maker YouTube, Simone Giertz (the "Queen of Shitty Robots") sells a decorative electronic 365 button wall calendar for this.

I just looked it up and it’s really cool! Unfortunately it’s US-only. Are there any guides on how to DIY one of those?

Re: How to Stop Procrastinating on Your Goals by Using the “Seinfeld Strategy”

#18

Post by felipelalli »

gnicholas wrote: post #14

Discussed previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2262437 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1033433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6544267

Thank you! I tried to search first, but I think sometimes HN search is broken.

Re: How to Stop Procrastinating on Your Goals by Using the “Seinfeld Strategy”

#20

Post by billti »

FPGAhacker wrote: post #9

The don’t break the chain thing is nice. I’ve used it a few times, but it can be very demotivational when you had a super long chain and you broke it. It’s very hard to get momentum again.

Same. Stuck at a “modest” diet & exercise habit daily for 8 months with great results. Then I stopped for a couple days and haven’t been able to “keep the chain” going again since.

From the article:

> While most people get demotivated and off–track after a bad performance, a bad workout, or simply a bad day at work, top performers settle right back into their pattern the next day.

I think that’s the key (which I’ve not mastered). With things like Alcoholics Anonymous, meditation practice, etc. they say “If you break the chain, then don’t beat yourself up, just start again”. But obviously if keeping up the streak is a big part of the motivation, then once it’s broken that’s going to demotivate.

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