Don’t Break the Chain!

Since we both have rather sedentary jobs, Katie and I decided a while ago that we wanted to go on a walk every day after dinner and do a more intense workout at least once a week.  The problem was that we weren’t very consistent.  It was easy to find an excuse to skip a day, which made skipping the next day even easier.  Then we discovered The Seinfeld Method for keeping goals and forming habits.  Here’s how it works:

1. Put a calendar in a prominent place.  Write your goal on top that you want to do every day.  Place a red pen or marker nearby. 
2. Every day that you accomplish your goal, put a large ‘X’ through the box, forming a chain as you keep your goal for multiple days.
3. Don’t break the chain.  

Now this is the surprising part: it actually works!
I had read about this method before, but dismissed it thinking, “That can’t possibly be a good motivator”.  However, this is what our calendar looks like: