Chains

Inspired by Chris Strom, I’ve decided to create a new chain.  ”Don’t break the chain” is based on the idea that consistent, repeated effort brings a successful outcome.  Each day you complete the task, you mark it.  After a while you’ve got a consecutive series of marks which form a chain.  As the chain gets longer, your motivation to not break the chain increases.  It’s not the length of the chain itself that is the key.  It’s that the chain encourages you to consistently and daily repeat the task.  Consistent and repeated task brings improved skill.  It’s that improved skill that’s the point.

My one-year chain is to write daily in this blog.  So, that’s it.  Here’s to day 1.

p.s. Check out Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret and chains.cc/.

Start

There web and bookstore shelves are full of authors and advisors urging us to produce instead of plan, to do instead getting bogged down in deciding. Some urge readers to “Ready, Fire, Aim.” In The Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki says

GET GOING.
Start creating and delivering your product or service. Think soldering irons, compilers, hammers, saws, and AutoCAD—whatever tools you use to build products and services. Don’t focus on pitching, writing, and planning.

The planning is not the start. The deciding is not the start. I often fool myself into thinking I am starting something, when actually I am working on the stuff I think I need to do in order to start. In most cases, I’m wasting time.

For this blog, the 20 minutes I spent looking for a great WordPress theme could have been spent starting this post.

For iPhone development, the 30 minutes I spent looking through a short stack of iPhone development books, trying to decide which to buy, could have been spent actually starting iPhone development.

Don’t worry about the details just yet. Right now, today, Just Start.