Conquering your goals: Accountability
Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well. This week in our Conquering Your Goals series we are talking about accountability. If you have not completed the posts before this, please do so in the order they have been posted so you can follow along better.
Accountability here means taking responsibility for working toward your goals and staying on track. It’s about being honest with yourself (or someone else) about your progress. Honesty is the key driver of accountability, there is no accountability where there is a lack of honesty and this is where we often struggle, being honest with ourselves is hard. Being honest with ourselves is hard, especially when goals get tough, but it’s a crucial step in making real progress. To ensure we are being honest, we need an external system of accountability. The key is to get out of our minds, stop relying on our thoughts, and have a more concrete view of our progress. Internal motivation is great, but having an external reminder, like a friend or app, makes it easier to stay consistent.
Here are some ways you can stay accountable
- Using tracking Apps. For example:
- My fitness pal/chronometer for tracking calorie intake if you are trying to gain or lose weight.
- Fitbit or the likes of it for tracking steps to measure progress
- Use a planner to write down your money spent every day to stay on track for financial goals
- Telling your friend about your goals and asking them to check in (Pick a friend who’s reliable and willing to give you that nudge when you need it!)
- Joining a community focused on achieving the same goal as you. If you wish to run, see if you can join a running group.
In short, if you can find some metric to track daily that relates to your goal, you will end up with a very solid accountability system. The goal is to keep the metric realistic, simple and easy to track. For example, if you have a steps tracking tool, you can easily track your steps but if you don’t, pick a different metric or buy the tool. Don’t worry if apps or planners aren’t your thing. The key is finding a system that works for you, even if it's just writing in a notebook or setting reminders on your phone.
Making it visual
Creating any one system of accountability is excellent but you can take it to the next level by adding a visual element to it. So you would take the tracking you are already doing but put it somewhere visible so you are more aware of your progress or lack thereof.
For example, if your goal is to reach 10,000 steps every day. You can buy a calendar, hang it somewhere visible, and write down the steps you took every night before bed. This in itself can act as an outside motivator and aid to your interest in progressing towards your goal
Tracking at your lowest counts the most!
There are going to be days when you fall off the wagon when you are so behind your goal that it feels embarrassing to track the day, that is when you must track it! We allow ourselves to make mistakes, we accept our shortcomings but we do not turn a blind eye to them. If your goal is to spend 1 hour on your screen but instead it was an 8-hour day, you track that 8 hours!
📣Tasks for you
- Think of the goal you have set for yourself. Tell us an accountability system you will use. Be specific!
- How will you make it visual? (keep the tracking somewhere where you see it regularly)
This post is part of the Conquering Your Goals Series. Check out all the posts here.
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@Hope
Think of the goal you have set for yourself. Tell us an accountability system you will use. Be specific!
I have been occasionally referring to my search history to go over the time watched for YouTube. Otherwise, I have found that I have been keeping myself accountable quite well.
How will you make it visual? (keep the tracking somewhere where you see it regularly)
I plan to keep the same system that I use for my accountability system, my history online. It is nice as the tracking is done by my browser.
@Hope Think of the goal you have set for yourself. Tell us an accountability system you will use. Be specific! I have a self discovery journal that I write in and share with the therapist. Plus he keeps record on his notes. I get souvenirs and keep receipts to show that I actually went some places. And I usually take tons of pictures
How will you make it visual? (keep the tracking somewhere where you see it regularly) The self discovery journal is usually on my desk and there are pamphlets and brochures of places I want to visit and things I'd like to do. I make bookmarks of websites for places and things I find interesting
@Hope
- Think of the goal you have set for yourself. Tell us an accountability system you will use. Be specific!
i will use serenity app for mindfulness exercises - How will you make it visual? (keep the tracking somewhere where you see it regularly)
i have a habit tracker and there is a widget to check everyday if i followed my task
@Hope
- Think of the goal you have set for yourself. Tell us an accountability system you will use. Be specific! A goal I have set is to reduce my time on social media. I have an app called the Your Hour app which tracks my time on teh various medias I have used.
- How will you make it visual? (keep the tracking somewhere where you see it regularly) I can make it more visual by tracking them in a diary/journal.
@Hope
I want to have a general goal for doing more art. I keep saying it's a hobby of mine, but really, I don't engage with hobbies as much as I'd like to.
I can stay accountable by making a weekly/monthly goal for projects in Habitica that I can also share with others. I can ask for help with reminders to do artwork and set aside a specific time of day to work on my goals.
I can prepare by having a checklist to help me focus:
> Home alone
> Playlist/podcast
> A comforting coffee/tea
> A notepad to shorthand any distracting thoughts to address after artwork time
> Cleanup time to prepare the space for next time
I can reward myself with self-care in Finch, self-affirming statements, and sharing my accomplishments with others.
@StrawberryShaken
As of writing this, I did not do any of my artwork goals.. And I believe it is because I have set my goals too high for someone who does not do much art lately. So I'm going to reevaluate them and see how I can adjust them for the energy levels I am working with.
@Hope
1. Think of the goal you have set for yourself. Tell us an accountability system you will use. Be specific! For working out, I use my apple watch to track my workouts and how long i do them for.
2. How will you make it visual? (keep the tracking somewhere where you see it regularly) i will make it visual by noting it down on my iPad, that i use daily as a notebook.
@Hope
I don't do so well at this one. I tried setting goals with my therapist for accountability. I just come up with excuses. I think in reality I'm not ready for that goal. Something needs to happen first, presumably.
I wanted to remember to get up and stretch every hour at work. I set the computer to pop up a reminder. I became very skilled at getting rid of that pop up. But not stretching.
I don't know, I just feel I have enough to do to do the thing, I don't have the time to be making calendars. Or I'd rather spend that time on actually doing it.
@Hope Here's my visual. My calendar is to help me keep tracking the days I have gone thus far without drinking any soda. I have also recently downloaded the Plant Nanny app to help me track my water intake in a fun way! Hoping to stay consistent with using this app. Lol.
@Hope
Think of the goal you have set for yourself. Tell us an accountability system you will use. Be specific!
- I’ll set a reminder on my phone to journal each day. I’ll mark each completed journal entry in a dedicated planner, crossing off the day once it’s done.
- Every Sunday, I’ll review my week and see how many days I hit my goal.
How will you make it visual? (keep the tracking somewhere where you see it regularly)
I’ll use a wall calendar where I can mark off each day I journal. I’ll keep the calendar on my desk, so I see it every day and it’ll remind me to stay consistent.