Accountability and a Writer's Fragile Goals

Summary

The article discusses the challenges of maintaining writing goals and the importance of accountability to overcome procrastination and leisure distractions.

Abstract

The writer addresses the common issue of losing momentum during leisure time or due to events, which can disrupt the progress towards writing goals. The article suggests that while one solution could be to work continuously without breaks, this approach is not feasible for the author. Instead, the focus is on creating accountability through tools such as a marked calendar or an accountability buddy/coach. The writer also humorously notes the effectiveness of a dog as a free accountability coach for daily routines. The central theme is the struggle to maintain writing inertia, as the author emphasizes that once writing habits are established, they tend to continue, but the challenge lies in initiating the work. The article concludes with a call to action for readers to join the author's newsletter for more content and writer tips.

Opinions

The author believes that taking time off can disrupt writing momentum and make it difficult to resume work.
Two potential solutions to this problem are proposed: continuous work without breaks or implementing accountability measures.
Accountability is defined as the realization or reminder that one is not progressing towards their goal at the intended pace.
Simple tools like a daily-marked calendar or more complex ones like an accountability buddy or coach are suggested to maintain progress.
The author admits to personal difficulty in resuming work after breaks, such as adding "just one more day" off, which can derail goals.
Writing is perceived as a process that, once started, can flow naturally without the pressure of meeting specific word counts.
The writer emphasizes personal responsibility in maintaining inertia, suggesting that the decision to write or not is a conscious choice based on accountability.

Care and feeding. What works for me.

Let’s start with a couple of working concepts or definitions.

Let us say, for this purpose, that a writer's desire is to end up with a dissertation of X number of words by such and such a time.

We are not dealing with the mechanics of dividing the total work into bite-sized chunks based on the number of days we have until the completion date. That is a given.

The problem is leisure time.

My problem is one of leisure time. A long weekend or distracting events can cause a writer (me) to lose inertia and be slow to get restarted.

There are at least two possible cures for this situation.

One is to stop taking any time off. Work through the weekend. Work over the holidays. Never be worried about restarting because you never stopped. (But I just can’t do that.)

The second is to devise some sort of accountability.

For me, accountability means simply to realize or be reminded that you are not moving at your predecided speed and manner toward your goal.

Accountability tools

A simple calendar that I mark daily could serve as a reminder.

An accountability buddy or coach who called you every day could serve as an accountability friend. This can be simple or it can be complex.

If it is your job to walk the dog, the dog himself can become your accountability coach. For free.

One of my many problems is that, after a spring break, for instance, it can be WAY too easy for me to add JUST ONE MORE DAY to my time off.

That shatters my goal into pieces.

My stories tend to write themselves. My job is to find that first line or that title, get it written, and then kick away the chocks and let it go. I don't feel I have to write 500 or 2000 words, so there is no pressure there. The only pressure is to start that work

Accountability and a Writer's Fragile Goals

Care and feeding. What works for me.

The problem is leisure time.

Accountability tools

Maintaining inertia

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