Become awesome in 366 days

It started with Jerry Seinfeld's productivity secret. Well, it's not technically a secret, since quite a few fellas  know that it is:

Don't break the chain.

 I'm not gonna praise it here. On the contrary: it's one of the productivity tricks that work the least well for me. There's always a weird day where a lot happens and keeping chains of my good old habits is really hard for me, let alone some new habit I'm working on. And when things go back to normal, I easily and happily get back on track. (Bah, as you see on this blog, getting back on some track can happen at the weirdest of times for me.)

But, there's me, and there's other people. Like Chris Strom. That guy used the secret above to become awesome in 366 days. That's how his chain goes:

Every night, I ask a question to which I don't know the answer and I try my damnedest to answer it.

Sticking to that chain for 366 days made him learn a lot and write 3 smart books (the details are on LifeHacker).

There's also yet other people. That guy doesn't need 366 days to become awesome:

However, let's leave Barney out of this - none of us can hope to be half as awesome as he is!

Chris' example (and the comments below the article) made me think. We all know it's not easy to start a good new habit. We all have lots of ways to fill our time (otherwise boredom would drive me right into the good habits' arms). We all need to rest too. You can only add so many one-hour-long daily activities (24 - to be exact). But how about 5-15-minute ones? (The number is instantly way bigger!) I know some people are for instance taking care of small children and have a hard time getting even 10 extra minutes from their day (do you know what small children can do in 10 minutes?), but not me. I could squeeze one in the morning and a few ones after work. Is it worth the shot? Will it make me even more tired, or on the contrary, energized and happy about my productivity? How many ways to find out are there? And finally, as a wise commenter on Lifechaker asks:

If I hadn't spent that time doing those small things, what might I have gained, a high score on spider solitaire?

[Picture credit]