What are you doing to make yourself accountable?
It is not an easy thing to do, especially on a daily basis, but I am going to share what I do to make myself accountable.
Every day I put together my power list. This is a list of five things that I need to accomplish that day to win the day.
It sounds silly, okay, but it has kept me accountable for years. I use a simple notebook, and I write the date and then five little squares. Next to the little squares, I write five things.
Typically three of these things every day are to write, to read, and to watch something — it could be a TV show or a movie, but whatever it is it has to be scripted and in the genre that I am writing or at least adjacent to the genre or just good — so like the Golden Bachelorette doesn’t count.
Some other items on my power list might be to exercise, go grocery shopping, run some errands with the kids, go to the post office, write a blog post about awesome middle grade books, or whatever.
In terms of setting your longer-term goals, these are the building blocks. The incremental work and action you take every day in the short term will lead you to achieving those long-term goals.
The best part of the power list is crossing everything off. It feels great, and it keeps me accountable. I know that by making incremental progress like writing for 30 minutes to an hour every day, I will eventually finish the project I’m working on. Or by reading a chapter or two of a book, I’ll eventually finish the book. All of this keeps me focused on what I need to be doing and keeps me accountable.
In the end, we are all accountable for our actions. Words and excuses cannot substitute for action. Action is what sets apart the high-performers from the complainers.
What are you doing to make yourself accountable? Let me know!
And KEEP WRITING.
