Don't Break the Chain

The Reader’s Edge | Charlie Samways | August 9, 2026 |

Over the last three months, a new morning routine has helped me hit more of my targets.

I realised that I wanted to lose 10kg (long-term goal), journal consistently, and learn a new skill that would help my content creation on YouTube.

Before this point, I wouldn’t have described my morning routine as bad. But looking back, I could see that what I achieved each morning was so varied.

Back then, one morning I would eat my breakfast and take a shower, but not a lot else. On other days, I might do those things, but add in some journaling and a bit of exercise.

Using the principles set out in James Clear’s Atomic Habits, I knew to find consistency I had to start small. I also took a step that I’d always avoided: creating a visible list.

This list was my sign every day whether I was achieving my goals or not. I made sure to start with goals that felt too easy to begin with, and this made the difference to me coming back every single day.

After just three days of completing every task on the list, I had a morning where I wasn’t able to complete everything.

Before, I would have lost momentum for a few days, and then tried again when the mood took me. But the visual aid of the list meant that I finished those tasks that evening instead. I wasn’t going to bed having missed tasks.

Even better than that was the fact that it proved a reminder to keep my routine every morning, to avoid those objectives lingering over me during the day.

That fourth day was a key turning point, and highlighted an important lesson.

The Seinfeld Method

So what was it on that fourth day that caused me to miss my morning tasks?

It was getting lost on my phone.

Even before my new routine, every morning, during breakfast, I would put an audiobook on my phone and follow along on my Kindle. But on this day, as I went to shut Audible, I felt a desire to check my messages. I went down a rabbit hole of different conversations that didn’t need my attention right now, but I was sucked in regardless. 

After that, I started checking my emails. It was the same thing. None of the emails were urgent, they could have all been answered when I started work that day. But here I was replying to them anyway.

Having designed my morning and completed three successful days, I was able to highlight the actions on my phone as the problem.

It struck me that this new system had highlighted an issue that I wasn’t aware was impacting my mornings.

I still wanted to keep my phone to listen to audiobooks, so it was important to find a tool on it that worked for me. The answer came with focus mode on my iPhone, which made it harder to move from Audible to emails, messages, or social media.

That simple switch meant that the following mornings ran smoothly. This was all identified by the list that made every action clear.

This is the Seinfeld Method in action, and comes from a system popularised by Jerry Seinfeld. The idea is simple: use a calendar to track your tasks, and mark each completed day with a big “X”.

This exact method has kept me on course to achieve my three goals. And in the same process, I’ve learnt the importance of starting with clear targets to determine why you’re motivated to take these actions.

The next step was around setting tasks that I knew would be easy to complete initially, but fit into my available time each morning. Once you can feel consistency building, then it’s time to ramp up the tasks to push yourself further slowly.

But above all else, the biggest point of difference for me was using a list to track my ability to meet each task. This was the visual tool that helped keep me on track. I prefer one that shows the whole month, so you can see your progress building as the days go by.

Trust me when I say that when you get a streak going, you won’t want to miss a day.

This Week’s Question

I asked this same question in a different format last week, but worth asking again, because the answers so far have been genuinely interesting. And a big thank you to everyone who has sent in their responses.

What's the one thing you keep meaning to make, start or finish, and haven't? You can reply to me directly at hello@charliesamways.com, or if you can spare me 20 minutes, variations of this question are asked in this questionnaire

From The Channel This Week 

This week’s video was a bit of fun, cramming 100 Kindle Tricks into 15 minutes of content: 

100 Kindle Tricks in 15 Minutes

And I’ve just updated my Free Kindle Guide with a bonus section on speed reading, which is available for all members to download here

Wishing you all the best this week, and finding a morning routine that fits your goals.

Catch up next week,

Charlie Samways