Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secrets

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 07/27/07 at 11:07:51 am

This article which was written by Brad Isaac of persistenceunlimited.com has been featured on a couple other big weblogs that I frequent such as LifeHacker. I’m definitely a huge Jerry Seinfeld fan, and since the information in this is not only creative and helpful but relevant to what I’m currently going through, I thought I would post it here.

Brad Isaac –
Years ago when Seinfeld was a new television show, Jerry Seinfeld was still a touring comic. At the time, I was hanging around clubs doing open mic nights and trying to learn the ropes. One night I was in the club where Seinfeld was working, and before he went on stage, I saw my chance. I had to ask Seinfeld if he had any tips for a young comic. What he told me was something that would benefit me a lifetime…

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. But his advice was better than that. He had a gem of a leverage technique he used on himself and you can use it to motivate yourself - even when you don’t feel like it.

He then revealed a unique calendar system he was using pressure himself to write.

Here’s how it worked.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. “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 next is to not break the chain.”

“Don’t break the chain.” He said again for emphasis.

Over the years I’ve used his technique in many different areas. I’ve used it for exercise, to learn programming, to learn network administration, to build successful websites and build successful businesses.

It works because it isn’t the one-shot pushes that get us where we want to go, it is the consistent daily action that builds extraordinary outcomes. You may have heard “inch by inch anything’s a cinch.” Inch by inch does work if you can move an inch every day.

Daily action builds habits. It gives you practice and will make you an expert in a short time. If you don’t break the chain, you’ll start to spot opportunities you otherwise wouldn’t. Small improvements accumulate into large improvements rapidly because daily action provides “compounding interest.”

Skipping one day makes it easier to skip the next.

I’ve often said I’d rather have someone who will take action - even if small - every day as opposed to someone who swings hard once or twice a week. Seinfeld understands that daily action yields greater benefits than sitting down and trying to knock out 1000 jokes in one day.

Think for a moment about what action would make the most profound impact on your life if you worked it every day. That is the action I recommend you put on your Seinfeld calendar. Start today and earn your big red X. And from here on out…

Don’t break the chain!

As I said before, very creative and if one tried hard enough I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. I personally have a lot of projects, stresses, and goals going on right now. So for me, since this approach could be applied to essentially anything, I may give it a shot.

Brad Issac has all sorts of great articles on productivity, stress management, and organization along with other daily motivational strategies on his blog, I definitely recommend checking it out.

We’re Cooking Up Here

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 07/25/07 at 03:07:38 pm

It’s definitely July here in Minnesota, time for my annual complain-about-the-summer-heat post. It’s funny because when you mention that you’re in Minnesota to someone in another part of the country they will always ask if it’s nice and cool up here. They just assume that our summers are like a mild winter, like it doesn’t get remotely warm here. In reality Minnesota is the only state that I know of that although it has 4 seasons it really only has 2 climates in terms of temperature; Hella’ Hot and Hella’ Cold. It will get to -40F in the winter and 100F in the summer, no problem.

A good example – I was talking with a rep from a firm that our company does business with and he stated that he was in California and he asked where our office was. I said Minnesota and he said “Ohhh I bet it’s nice up there?! It’s about 87 down here today, not too bad but I bet that Minnesota weather is great!” and he was floored when I replied, “Nope, its 96F out with 80% humidity… hotter than hell right now.”

I wish it were nice and mild here, year round even. People think I’m obsessed with regions like the Pacific Northwest, I’ll mention that I’d like to move away to Seattle or Portland all the time but it’s true. Our weather here really does bother me… it’s unfair. We can never seem to have a string of nice mild, comfortable conditions. I swear, our “Spring” must last less than a day, You will wake up and it will be 31F, by lunch it’s 70 and raining and by the time you get home from work its sunny and blazing at like 90.

Days like this, I’m thankful that I work inside.

Hardware Review: Motorola MOTO Q Smartphone by Sprint

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 07/24/07 at 11:07:51 am

As I mentioned in an Earlier Post I recently switched back to Sprint from Nextel. When I switched over I received a great offer on a Motorola MOTO Q Smartphone. Before discounts the retail price for the Q is around $449.00. Sprint is offering it to new customers on their website for $250.00 before a mail-in rebate. However by going through Sprint INS I was able to get one at a steal.

I’m going to say off the bat that the Motorola Q is a slim, sexy device. It measures at 0.5 inches thin and weighs a mere 4.1 ounces; I can easily put this thing in my pocket and not even feel it. With it being so small you would think it would feel cheap and overly light but in reality the device has nice almost rubberized feel to it and it sports enough weight so it feels like you’re actually holding something. Overall I wouldn’t say it feels cheap at all. The QWERTY keypad is great and the jog wheel on the side is nice and sturdy. The buttons above the keypad could be a little better, you can feel the plastic along the top edge like it isn’t perfectly flush with the screen, but it took me a few days to notice it.


The Motorola Q runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphones which is very similar to the PocketPC’s I’ve had in the past such as my Dell Axim that ran PPC 2003. However at the same time WM 5 navigates like a cell phone, the menus and everything are pretty basic. I think in my case it’s a good thing, I’ve had plenty of PDA phones in the past that run a full PocketPC or Palm OS and they never worked that great and were overly complicated to use, especially when I was on the go. The Q is a fully functioning PDA but it’s stripped down enough to where it’s extremely quick to navigate. The UI itself is very intuitive and I like how it has a lot of options I’ve always wanted in a phone such as setting an mp3 as a ringtone or easy to manage sound profiles. The little details are what make the Q awesome and best of all everything works flawlessly.

The Q has all of the basic features you would expect. In terms of connectivity it sports Bluetooth which works great, I just picked up a Bluetooth headset for it this week. The Bluetooth also has stereo support for headphones and such. The Q doesn’t have Wi-Fi but it does support Sprint’s EVDO network which seems to be quick enough for basic tasks such as email, IM etc.

The 320×240 2.4 inch LCD is very nice and bright, it really looks good and sharp. The screen is very easily smudged up by finger prints with its glossy finish, it also looks like it could be easily scratched so I went ahead and picked up a screen protector from EverythingQ right away. It’s nice to see a backlit keypad on this device too however I would prefer it to be a little brighter…

The Q has a 312-MHz Intel XScale processor which in my opinion is plenty of horsepower for WM 5 and applications that it runs. The device also has a nice 1.3 Megapixel camera with an LED “flash”. It takes acceptable photos in well lit conditions such as outdoors. The built-in camera also features a video function which seems to work well for short clips.

A lot of the Moto Q reviews I’ve been reading get into all of the online content that Sprint has to offer for the device. I’m not going to really get into that because I’m using this thing primarily for business and email. I did purchase a data plan for the phone but I really haven’t had a chance to use it. I do know that Sprint has exclusive NFL content for the Q and it looks like there’s a software store app and a neat On Demand thing that I have yet to really take a look at. To be honest I’m not really interested in the web features outside of my communication needs that this device has to offer.

When it comes to voice quality and battery life I would say that the Q is pretty average. I’ve been playing with it almost non-stop since I received it and it lasts about 2 days before needing a charge. The official specs from Motorola are 4 hours of talk time and 212 hours of standby which appears to be fairly accurate. The voice quality seems to be good, I live and work in areas with very low signal so it’s not uncommon to have fuzziness and static in the phone calls, I notice this more with Sprint then Nextel. But that’s just a coverage issue.

Getting back to the software, as expected the Windows Mobile based device syncs flawlessly with Microsoft Office. I was afraid that there would be a software compatibility issue with Vista and the new Outlook and sure enough there was. ActiveSync is not compatible with Windows Vista so I had to go to Microsoft’s website and download the new Windows Mobile Device Center for Windows Vista. But once I got that installed it worked great. Again, I didn’t have a chance to take a look at the other software that came with the Q, I believe there may have been some other apps or trials on the CD, there is supposed to be a Gmail applet somewhere which I still want to check out.

I think I’ve gone over everything I wanted to in this review although there is so much more. Overall, the Motorola Q is an amazing little phone. The device is small and light yet durable enough to where it should last me more than a few months. The phone is packed with a great set of features that combine nicely with the simplicity of the navigation that I know will save me the frustration I have experienced with other Smartphones. It’s most definitely the best designed Smartphone I have owned to date and best of all its affordable.

Back to Sprint I go.

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 07/20/07 at 11:07:06 pm

This past week I had decided to switch back to Sprint from Nextel. If you remember I actually just switched to Nextel less then a year ago. The problem with Nextel is that the data network is almost non-existent. Nextel uses iDen, which is a dead technology that Sprint insists to hang on to in efforts of supporting the walkie-talkie network. Although the walkie was nice, the ugly clunky phone, lack of high-speed data, and poor options for phone upgrades was unacceptable.

The weird part is that Sprint actually has an entire department, as in an entire office dedicated to switching people off of Nextel onto Sprint. What does that tell you right?

It’s called the Sprint INS Dept. The best part is that they can give you just crazy offers to switch over. The offer I had taken was a brand new Motorola Q (which currently sells for $250.00 to new Sprint subs on their website) for $50.00 and then a Product (red) Moto RAZR for $40.00 (I bought a phone for a family member). No activation fee, no catches or surprises and here’s the unbelievable part — NO CONTRACT EXTENSION. That’s huge, not only did I get the new phones at a better deal then a brand new Sprint customer, but my previous Nextel contract which ends Nov. ’08 is still valid, I didn’t have to sign a new one to get the offer.

I was totally sold, I ordered my new plan and 2 days later I received my brand new phones. The only weird part was activating the phones; I had to go through Sprint INS to do it. The general activations dept. wouldn’t accept my ESN’s and actually wanted me to send the phones back to this INS dept. that apparently they never heard of.

However, it does exist and if you are a Nextel customer looking to jump ship and get an amazing deal in the process, give them a call at (866) 956-8304. Also, check back soon for my impressions of the absolutely amazing Motorola Q smartphone from Sprint.

Profanity! Apparently not found here.

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 07/15/07 at 12:07:27 pm

I’ve been rated! I was surfing on Bug’s Blog today when I came across this little tool to rate your website or weblog. Apparently I’m a G which is understandable, for some reason I rarely find myself cursing or using profanity on here. Perhaps I could change that.

Movie Review: Live Free or Die Hard

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 07/14/07 at 11:07:52 pm

A lot of movies these last few weeks. The weird thing is I really enjoy going to the cinema but for some reason I don’t go nearly as much as I could, perhaps I’m just now catching up.

Today I had seen Live Free or Die Hard with Bruce Willis and Justin Long AKA Apple’s “Mac” as most people know him these days. I’m actually a Justin Long fan; he did great in movies like Jeepers Creepers, Dodgeball, and of course one of my favorite movies - Waiting… I’m also a big fan of Bruce Willis and the Die Hard series, Die Hard III has always been my favorite. Even after today, unfortunately.

Not that Live Free or Die Hard (we’ll call it LFoDH for short) was bad, in fact it was exceptional. I did like how this time around it had a nice modern twist with it being based around cyber-terrorists. A lot of Hollywood geek in it, meaning lots of cool but highly unrealistic hacking and computer stuff going on. For example, apparently everyone, including the government uses Linux and/or some sort of OS that features a crazy UI. Also, I don’t know if you knew this but Alienware is a big seller among cyber-terrorists. Like sponsoring a LAN party, except taking down a nation rather then fragging your buddies.


It’s interesting though, over the last few years I’ve seen more and more Dell equipment appearing in Hollywood films. The Alienware name drop in LFoDH is good advertising for a brand that doesn’t seem to get a whole lot of publicity anymore. Alienware used to have the coolest commercials…

Anyway, the reason I said that DH III was still my favorite is due to not only the realism or lack there of contained in LFoDH, but also DH III just seemed ‘fuller’. The story was definitely better developed and made sense. I just didn’t feel that with this film, I didn’t buy it.

The movie was very fast paced, almost too quick, it skips around a little giving just enough information to keep you going but not really elaborating on the plot or real motive behind the terrorists. They essentially explained what they do, what they have done (the terrorists) but not really why they are doing it. I don’t want to give away the whole movie but a lot was left unexplained and at the same time I’m doubting there will be a 5th Die Hard.

I guess I really can’t complain about the realism in LFoDH. When compared to the other Die Hard movies it really isn’t any different. This movie had an F-22 fighter jet vs. a tractor trailer on a delapitating freeway, DH III had ship explosions and choppers being taken down by a tiny handgun. In fact, if your interested in the theoretical outcome of an all out cyber-attack on the US, this is a must see. Pretty scary and in that respect, not too far fetched.

The action and effects in this film we’re great. Maybe not Transformers good, but definitely quality. However there was one driving scene where they are entering West Virginia and it was like a crappy video background shot, and if you look closely you will see the background glitch up and stop for a split second, Ick. Other then that though, solid effects and cool sounds that keep you going through the movie.

As I said before, I don’t want to give away too much. The story may be under developed but Live Free or Die Hard is definitely a great addition to the classic Die Hard series. If you’re looking for some good action, Bruce Willis, and explosions then this movie may be worth seeing in the theater and/or owning on DVD when released.

Tobies Ecstasy

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 07/12/07 at 01:07:49 pm

We have a restaurant / bakery next door to my work called Tobies. The restaurant has good general American food but they are actually more well known for the bakery.

If you personally know me then you know that the last thing I should be doing is hitting a bakery for a snack. But it’s so hard to resist! Tobies has its own gas station next to the restaurant where they sell some of their baked goods and I was filling up this afternoon so I was in there. By the way, $3.40 gal?! Damn it…

Anyways, the cinnamon rolls are supposed to be world famous, however my favorite item is the Raspberry Bismarck which features an almost fried like texture with this amazingly delicious frosting on top and real homemade (or I guess Tobies made) raspberry filling. Wow.

It’s like crack, I needed it.

If you’re ever heading into greater Minnesota, consider stopping by Tobies.

Ramen Noodles

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 07/11/07 at 11:07:28 am

I’ve been on a Ramen Noodle kick lately. Before just a couple days ago it must have been years since the last time I enjoyed the artificially flavored goodness that Ramen has to offer. It’s weird because I’ve always liked the Chicken flavored but I don’t eat them nearly as much as I used to. Maybe it’s because I can afford to spend more then $2.00 on a weeks worth of food, or maybe I just forgot about how much I enjoyed them.

I never cared for the Cup o’ Soup, they say it’s the same thing only with the vegetables and in a cup but the Cup O’ Soup never seems to get fully cooked no matter how long you microwave it. It’s always like lukewarm. Also, I think it tastes completely different from its square packaged successor. The plastic vegetables are nasty too…

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