Goals and Accountability

You may or may not have noticed a little image on the right hand side of this page. It's a progress bar. It's a little way of keeping myself accountable for my work. As I write this blog, it's at about 80%. That's 80% of the revision process on my current book.

Now, you may not be all that interested in my progress. But you should be interested in some form of accountability. You should have goals, and a desire to reach them.

Unfortunately, you will also have distractions, roadblocks, difficulties, and disappointments. I made a little graphic progress bar. What are you doing? What tools are you using to help get through the hard times? You may want to consider accountability.

Telling someone that you're working toward a goal has often helped me. I tell them that I'm working toward a specific project completion on a certain date. But I often keep my project more abstract. I say, "I'm planning on having my rough draft of my novel complete by XX date." But I don't usually tell them details about the novel. Partially because I know how little those details will mean to them until they can see the whole project, but also because I know that I will try to justify the project to them if I start telling them details. The further the discussion goes, the more I usually end up questioning my resolve, or the purpose of my project. So I just say, "I'm working on something, and I'm planning on having it done by XX date."

Now, and this is important to me, I don't just come up with an arbitrary number if I can avoid it. I have tracked my productivity. I know that when I get an hour to write, I can usually produce around 600 usable words. I know how long it takes me to "get into" writing. I also know how many hours I'm scheduling for myself in a week, so I don't just grab a number out of thin air (though when I don't have data, I have done that). I have learned what I can do, and I set a realistic expectation.

For example, if my goal is to write a 75,000 word novel, I know that it will take me about 125 hours of work. I schedule 1 hour every day before anyone else wakes up, so I know that it will take me 125 days of work. I know that I generally only get to work on the weekdays, so 125 days is a bit more than 6 months. I don't want to wait for 6 months to be done, so I look for ways to increase my writing time. I also know that for every work session I generally need about 30 minutes to get into "the groove". but when I have the framework of a scene worked out in my head, I get more done, and as I get closer to the end of a project I can justify more hours to my family and I work faster because I've built the momentum.

The point is that I make an educated guess. I try to set a realistic goal that will push me, and then I tell someone. I tell my wife. I tell my brothers. I tell my parents. I tell my co-workers. But I don't tell them details unless I know they are really interested, even then I try to use their interest to push me to finish the work so that they can get better answers by seeing the whole thing.

And the progress bar? That's another way of telling someone. I don't know how many people will see it, and out of those people, how many people will care. But I'm putting my goal out there to the world. I need to be held accountable for my goals, and every little bit helps.

What do you do to keep yourself working?

Edit 11/20/2017:
Just as a note that might be helpful to some, I have another tool for accountability and that helps me track my productivity. I clock in and out on  a spreadsheet every time I write. I use a simple formula that helps me calculate how many words I wrote. When I am clocked in, I force myself to treat my writing as a job. If I'm not working, I have to clock out. My wife has access to the spreadsheet and can check up on me if she so desires (I don't think she ever does). It's a small thing, but has helped keep me accountable to myself. It also gives me data to set more accurate goals.

Here's a copy of the time clock. It's a google sheet. Make sure to save a copy of this document to use for yourself. Otherwise anyone will be able to edit it.