Keep yourself accountable
The 2 in 1 Weekly Planner from Poi Co. is a personal favourite of mine for productivity and organisation.
Whether it be uni work, a passion-project or fitness regime, we all need accountability in our lives.
There will come a time when you won’t always have a manager checking in with you, or personal trainer, so what happens when you go it alone?
Without anyone to report to or deadlines to meet, making progress on your side-project or personal growth can seem like a distant horizon to try and reach, but the reality is, there are simple rules you can set yourself and best practices to follow to keep yourself accountable.
01: A clear timeline & realistic goals
Put some time aside to visually map out what you want to achieve in the next week, month, year and break that timeline down into trackable, achievable goals. One massive project can seem totally overwhelming, but by chunking it up, it’s not so scary, right?
These micro-tasks are also a lot easier to tick off and keep track of progress-wise and you can identify any bottlenecks in your process or key things on your list you seem to keep deferring!
You can do this on paper or using digital tools such as Trello or Notion.
02: Set reminders or events in your calendar
Keep your timeline front-of-mind. Whether it’s on your bedroom wall, fridge door or in your phone calendar, it should be totally unavoidable! The more notifications the better.
In most calendar apps you can set your reminders to be a few days in advance as well, so if you need a friendly nudge to get your arse in gear, then set that alert!
03: Tell as many people about it as possible
Tell your friends, family, followers, exactly what you’re planning to do and when by. Platforms like Out Of Hours have created a great community of side-hustlers and systems to keep each other accountable.
Or you could ask around to see if anybody else is in need of an ‘Accountability Buddy’. Schedule in weekly / monthly calls to check in on each others’ progress. Feel free to drop us a DM on Instagram or send us an email and we’ll happily help!
You may regret telling your auntie about your forthcoming jazz-rap album when she asks about your progress at every family function for the foreseeable future, but you can’t fool your family. They’ll suss out your excuses in no time. Sounds like a great reason to get cracking to me!
04: Honesty is the best policy
If you’re not making progress, only you know why. Instead of recycling the same excuses, adjust your goals to be more manageable and realistic.
There’s no point setting yourself up to fail, but it’s totally fine if you just over-estimated a few things! Getting yourself down about a lack of momentum doesn’t help anybody. So restart, refresh your gameplan and get ready to...
05: Celebrate your milestones
No matter how big or small, taking a moment to appreciate how far you’ve come and what you’ve achieved is going to keep you motivated - so soak it up!
Personally, I like to write out my short and long-term goals, as well as daily tasks. There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of crossing out a job well done!
But most importantly - just start!
Don’t let anything put you off doing that thing you’ve always wanted to do. And remember, nothing is more important than your health, so don’t burn yourself in the process by setting crazy goals.
