Why Don’t Break the Chain is More Than a Game

The X that marks the daily writing goal spot drives momentum

It’s a late Saturday night and I’m staring at the calendar next to my desk. The one I just flipped the page over to for June. The one with a big neon pink “X” on the three squares for this month. The one marking the three days I have achieved my goal of writing daily, so far.

The one with today’s square blank, so far.

And I can’t let it go.

I can’t break the chain. I have to write.

“A calendar helps you plan work, gives you concrete goals, and keeps you on track.” — Austin Kleon, Steal Like An Artist

And it tells you when you are AWOL. It doesn’t care about your excuses or your explanations. It only cares about the enormous pink X that is missing.

It only cares that the chain is not broken.

The Seinfeld Strategy

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is said to have used a large wall calendar along with a red marker to keep track of his goal of writing a joke each day. After doing his day’s work, a big red X would mark the spot, signifying the goal had been met.

“After a few days, you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.”

I have to mark the X.

I can’t break the chain. I have to write.

And I must quit procrastinating.

“What looks like procrastination might just be preparation for action.” — Helen Redfern, The Confident Creative Club

I wasn’t actually procrastinating today; I was procrastiwriting.

I was preparing for action.

I received some research materials in the mail for my summer project and was eager to read through one, so I did. A vintage issue of SEVENTEEN magazine from 1974 took me on a memorable and informative stroll through the past. Images of Farrah Fawcett hairstyles and ads for frosted blue eyeshadow, along with reminders of funky plaid pantsuits and clunky, chunky shoes filled the pages of the magazine and my mind. What a trip down memory lane!

Then I went down another research rabbit hole of naming my characters in said project, which led to much waffling about over what names were popular for a character born in 1957 and if those names were the right fit. I needed to try several on for size, and that takes time. Thinking of a high school junior signing her name to a note to be passed in class or in a classmate’s yearbook, took me down another trail of looking up high school annuals from the seventies as well.

And then, of course, I needed to make a playlist to accompany this summer project — which will help when the time comes to plot and then write on this project’s draft. Music from the seventies is wide and varied (and the best in my personal opinion), taking quite sometime to land on just the right songs.

Project preparation took over and I’m not sorry. It was a lovely afternoon that slipped into the evening without a word written, but oh so enjoyable.

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” ― Marthe Troly-Curtin

But then there’s the X. I need for my chain to not be broken. I need to write something, anything. Some words written for today, strung together well-enough to call it done.

Isn’t it amazing how a simple neon pink X can motivate me to sit down and write?

To keep the chain going; to keep the momentum going.

To just write. And then to push publish.

So I just did.

Thanks for the X. Thanks to the X.

“A day can really slip by when you’re deliberately avoiding what you’re supposed to do.” — Bill Watterson, There’s Treasure Everywhere

p.s. — After further research, it appears as though Jerry Seinfeld claims he DID NOT come up with the idea of the “don’t break the chain” calendar challenge aka the “Seinfeld Strategy” nor does he use it.

Hmmm, does that mean the joke is on us? Or is that just another X?

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