"I Don't Have Time!" & Other Lies We Tell Ourselves
Here's a simple way to make art every single day
Stop me if you’ve heard this one…
When Jerry Seinfeld was an up-and-coming comedian, he made a commitment to write one joke per day. That’s it. A very modest goal. Once he did that, he’d walk over to a calendar he had hanging on the wall and draw a big red X over that date. After several days of doing this, he had a chain of Xs. From there, a simple but powerful guiding principle emerged…
Don’t break the chain.
Every single productivity guru/website/service has at least one article dedicated to the Don’t Break The Chain Method. It’s so synonymous with Jerry Seinfeld that you might know it as The Seinfeld System.
It’s easy to see why it persists. It’s a great story. And like a lot of things the internet perpetuates, it’s also not entirely true.
This productivity hack has been around a lot longer than Jerry Seinfeld. In fact, Seinfeld himself revealed in this nearly decade-old Reddit AMA thread that he thinks it’s hilarious that he’s still the one getting credit for it.
The origin story may be muddled, but that doesn’t change the fact that this method works. I can attest to that. There are also a couple of tricks you can use to bulletproof your success with it.
First things first: the main reason this is so effective is that it’s sustainable. In the Seinfeld example, it was one joke per day. Not a monologue. Not an entire set. A single joke. You want to come up with a daily goal that almost feels too easy.
When I’m working on a writing project, I prefer time-based goals instead of hitting a certain page count. So for me, that usually means at least ten to fifteen minutes a day of writing. That’s it! That’s the amount that’s so easy for me to accomplish, it would feel shameful not to.
“But Chris!” I can hear my fellow writers scoffing, “It would take me that long just to get into the flow of things! What am I really going to accomplish in just ten minutes?”
More than you think. Seriously. Especially as it adds up over days/weeks/months. That’s how I finished the first draft of the screenplay for The Strange Case of Lucy Chandler. 120 pages written fifteen minutes at a time.
In contrast, do you know how many pages I wrote when I used to wait until I had hours and hours of uninterrupted writing time? Tell ‘em, Billy Corgan…
Here’s the other reason this works — notice I said at least ten to fifteen minutes a day. What you’re going to find is that most days you’ll wind up going a lot longer than whatever duration you’ve set. It’s okay if you don’t! As long as you hit that bare minimum amount, it’s a victory. I’m just saying that this is something that’s probably going to happen without you having to force it.
And don’t get hung up on the exact number of minutes. This is different for every person and for every project. When I’m editing a film, 10 minutes a day becomes 30. 10 would still work, but 30 is the bare minimum amount of time I know I can dedicate to that particular goal without it starting to feel overwhelming.
You have to figure out what’s sustainable for you. But remember, the key here is to make that daily goal very modest. The absolute bare minimum.
Now, let’s talk about the calendar. What a great way to hold yourself accountable! And this doesn’t have to be anything fancy. When I started doing this, I was just printing pages off of timeanddate.com and taping them to the wall.
But hold up.
I want you to really pay attention to this next part. It’s such a tiny detail, but I promise it’s going to quadruple your chances of success with all of this.
Hang the calendar somewhere you’ll be forced to look at it every day.
Don’t use a little planner that you can close up and shove in a desk. Don’t put it on the back of a door or in a room you never go into. And for God’s sake, don’t use a fucking app on your phone.
Put it somewhere you can’t ignore it. Preferably right next to wherever you’re working. My calendar is hanging just to the right of the doorway in my home office. It’s the first thing I see when I walk in and the last thing I have to face before I turn out the light.
And you know what? I am physically incapable of leaving that room without making an X over that day. It would drive me crazy not to.
I’m telling you, this is the essential ingredient. If you’re going to hold yourself accountable, truly commit to it. Put the calendar somewhere you can see it. This will keep you consistent even when you’re not feeling motivated. And can I be blunt for a second?
Fuck motivation.
No, for real. Motivation occurs in these nice little bursts at the outset of any new endeavor, but it doesn’t last. That’s why gyms are packed on January 1st but nearly empty again come March. Once motivation’s been depleted, that’s when consistency takes over. And habits like this Don’t Break The Chain Method are what build consistency. It’s simple, but it works.
It also nullifies so many of the lies we often tell ourselves about why we keep putting off our “someday” projects. Like how we just don’t have enough time.
Bullshit.
Look, I get it. A lot of us feel maxed out with other obligations. But again, we’re talking about the bare minimum amount of required effort here. No matter how crazy my schedule gets, I can make time for that. And did you catch that?
I said MAKE, not FIND.
The folks who say they don’t have time to write/paint/practice/etc. are the same ones who will watch an entire season of Stranger Things in one weekend. They’ll complain that even ten minutes is too much to spare and then waste an hour scrolling through Twitter.
We make time for the things that are important to us. We’ll move mountains for them. Storytelling is so deeply a part of me that there is no force on this planet that could prevent me from doing it.
If it really matters to you, you’ll make the time. Even if it’s only ten minutes a day.
So here’s another lie some of you may be telling yourselves: are you an artist or are you just in love with the idea of being an artist?
If it’s the former… prove it.
Not to me. Because who cares what I or anyone else thinks? No, prove it to yourself. Pick a daily goal. Hold yourself accountable. Create a habit.
Stop making excuses and justifications. Start making art.
I actually had no idea this method was a “thing”. Definitely didn’t know Seinfeld was or wasn’t involved. But I have seen it put to good use. An artist I admire is a guy called Craig Fraser. For a long time now he has done a sketch a day. The only rules he has are “no less than 15 mins and no more than an hour”. He has gradually filled up sketch books and is currently on sketch #2099. Crazy accomplishment, but this is almost certainly the same method at play.