How To Be Successful With The Paper Clip Strategy

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know that I just love unique strategies that help business owners to stay on task, get and stay organized, and any tips, tricks and tools to help us achieve our goals and be successful. I have a new one for you today thanks to a reference to this article in a Facebook group I belong to. It’s “The Paper Clip Strategy”. The catchy title drew me in and after reading the article, I was very impressed with this technique that could help business owners be successful.

be successful

In a nutshell, it involves 2 jars, starting with one empty jar and one full of paperclips (or another such item). Each time you perform your chosen task you move a paperclip from the full jar over to the other jar. The strategy works using visual cues to display your progress on a behaviour. The more you do it the more motivated you become to continue and consistency is essential to success.

Here are a couple of examples from the article that describe how this technique serves as a motivator:

“Hoping to do 100 pushups each day? Start with 10 paper clips and move one over each time you drop down and do a set of 10 throughout the day.”

“Need to send 25 sales emails every day? Start with 25 paper clips and toss one to the other side each time you press Send.”

Read the full article here and get motivated to continue good habits, achieve your goals and be successful!

This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. Jennifer Hazlett

    I’m glad this prompted you to pick up it up again!

  2. Jennifer Hazlett

    Yes, it’s worth trying for the visual folks. sometimes the simpler the better.

  3. Jennifer Hazlett

    Thanks for sharing what works for you. I’m a big fan of dividing tasks into chunks of time as well.

  4. Jennifer Hazlett

    Awesome idea! I’d love to hear how it worked for you.

  5. Jennifer Hazlett

    I’m glad this showed up for you at the right time!

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