Progress Calendars

I have done quite  a bit of reading over the past several days, and I can't remember where this information was mentioned:(   But, wherever I was reading, it was mentioned that Jerry Seinfeld's method to ensure that he stayed productive was to get a big wall calendar of the year and put it in a visible place. Then he used a red marker and made an X on each day that he worked on writing (in order to create better jokes). He said that once there are red Xs in a row, there's motivation to "not break the chain" of Xs, thus creating motivation to write every day (or complete whatever task/activity it is that you need to create motivation to work on each day).

I like this idea, but since there are several things I want to make sure I do every day, one red X wouldn't be enough to cover these activities. So, I took the calendar pages I had made for my organizational binder (I only have until July, so I'll have to add the rest of the months later) and I separated each date into several sections. Then, I made a little key, with each activity being a different color. As I complete those tasks each day, I can fill in the different sections.

Click to download

For example, so far today, I have exercised and I have completed this blog post, so I colored in those two sections of my calendar. I will print these calendar pages (and of course get different colored markers) and even though it won't be a big wall calendar, as J.S. uses, it should be big enough to catch my attention. I'm very excited to use this and see how well it works as a motivational tool in these areas. I'm thinking that I also have some space on the calendars, where the dates are written, so if I want to add a 5th item to work on, I can keep track of it in that section.

If you're interested in using the calendars (for yourself, or to help your students track progress), you can download them by clicking below the first image. I tried to upload the PowerPoint version, but too many lines were lost, so it is in PDF form. I took out my key so that you can fill in your own:)

Happy New Year!