**Guest post from the DIY Musician Blog.

"Jerry Seinfeld is arguably one of the most successful comedians of our time. Wealthy beyond words, he ran his smash hit show ‘Seinfeld’ year after year which snapped up countless awards and all without ever running short of material.

So how did he do it? The answer is actually much simpler than you may think and it’s a proven method to helping you effectively smash any goal you set for 2015.

Jerry’s secret strategy?

He used a system whereby he would aim to write one joke every day. That’s it – just one joke. Not five, not ten just one.

Once he’d written his joke he would place a big red cross over that day on his calendar and after a few days of doing this a chain would form. The system then became about not breaking the chain, rather than the joke itself.

The genius behind the Seinfeld Strategy is that the smallest increment of work can add up to a project of mammoth sized proportions and you don’t get overwhelmed in the process. Let’s think about this in music terms; say you want to build a fan base on YouTube. Don’t think about the massive task ahead of how you are going to get to 1000 then 10,000+ subscribers and how many awesome videos everyone else has; instead just think about doing one music video each week, every week. Once you’ve done that, tick off your calendar.

Or say you want to improve your instrumentation skills; just go for 15 minutes of practice per day. That’s it! 15 minutes of concentrated practice and once you’ve done it get your red pen out. After a while you’ll have such a long chain of red crosses on your calendar you will do anything not to break the chain.

Trust me it works – I’ve been applying it to my own piano practice for the last six months and my skills have skyrocketed. Even on days when I can’t be bothered practicing I know that if I just do my 15 minutes I’ll get my red cross and the chain stays intact. Its serious motivation and it pays serious compound interest.

I personally think the psychology behind the Seinfeld Strategy runs much deeper. Quite often the biggest obstacle between you and success is inaction. How many times have you written a goal, poured all of your best intentions into it and stuck it up somewhere on your wall at home in a place where you’re bound to see it every day, hoping that it will subliminally make you achieve it; only to have it stare at you malevolently and still be unticked by the end of the year?

The Seinfeld Strategy puts an end to this vicious cycle. Now you get small wins every day in the form of another link in your chain and by the end of the month; a whole page full of red crosses!! You can see your progress growing each day and by the end of the year you’ll know that you did everything you could to achieve that goal.

So, whatever your grand plan is for 2015, break it down to the smallest increment possible and make that into your actionable system. Focus only on completing that one task and getting that red cross and before you know it, you’ll not only reach your goal, you’ll smash it.

Just remember, whatever you do… ‘don’t break the chain’.

Article reference: http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nicola Milan provides free tips for improving your singing, songwriting and performance craft on her website Singer’s Secret. Head to www.singerssecret.com for free singing lessons and tips."

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