Putting It All Together: Two Worked Examples
Let’s move from the abstract to the concrete. Seeing how these principles can be woven into a daily routine makes them far more tangible. Here are two examples of how someone might apply the Seinfeld Method to build a powerful, yet gentle, habit chain. Notice how the focus is on tiny actions, environmental design, and identity reinforcement.
Example One: The Evening Wind-Down Routine
Sarah works in a fast-paced city job and finds it nearly impossible to switch off at night. Her mind races, she scrolls endlessly on her phone, and she often goes to bed feeling wired and anxious. Her goal is to create a calming evening ritual. She decides her identity focus is: “I am a person who rests and recharges peacefully.” She gets a simple monthly calendar and places it on her bedside table next to a red marker. Her minimum viable action is not a full-blown, 30-minute routine. It’s simply to put her phone on its charger across the room and pick up a book. That’s it. The action takes 30 seconds. She has audited the friction; the book is already on her nightstand, and the charger’s new location adds friction to the bad habit of nighttime scrolling. The calendar itself is the cue. After she completes the tiny action, she makes a satisfying “X” on the day. Most nights, once she has the book in her hand, she reads for 15 or 20 minutes. But on nights when she is utterly exhausted, she reads just one paragraph, puts the book down, and still gets to mark her “X.” She is reinforcing her identity, keeping the chain alive, and slowly, gently, building a habit of evening calm.
Example Two: The Morning Focus Primer
David is a freelance designer who struggles with the unstructured nature of his mornings. He often drifts into email or social media, losing the first, most productive hour of his day. He wants to start his workday with clarity and intention. His identity focus: “I am a focused professional who owns my mornings.” He buys a large wall calendar and hangs it directly in his line of sight from his desk. He decides to use a technique called habit stacking, where you link a new habit to an existing one. His existing habit is making a cup of coffee. His new routine is this: while his coffee brews, he will not look at his phone. Instead, he will open a specific notebook and write down his single most important task for the day. This is his minimum viable action: write one sentence about his top priority. To reduce friction, he prepares the night before by leaving the notebook and a pen open to a fresh page right next to his coffee maker. The act of turning on the machine is the cue. After he writes his sentence, and while the coffee finishes brewing, he walks to the wall calendar and draws his “X.” He has successfully protected his focus for the first ten minutes of the day. This small act of intention sets the tone, making him far more likely to tackle that important task first, all because he started with an action so small it was impossible to skip.
