My Accountability Group
I had a whole list of dream projects I wanted to complete but I never seemed to find the time to be able to find the time to work on them. Joining an accountability group turned out to be the move that added up to a whole lot of progress.
Like many people, I had a whole bunch of dream projects that I hoped to get to some day. But some day never seemed to come. When I was still working a full-time job, I spent those after work hours regrouping. Oh, I tried to make them productive; I blocked out an hour in my scheduled every day to work on my book. But every time the reminder popped up, I snoozed it. I dreamed of the day when I would be working as a freelancer and be more in charge of my own time. But that didn’t seem to help; some deadline or errand always managed to fill the time. It seemed like that idea I had in the back of my head would remain a pipe dream. Then Beth Penn of Beneato Bar, who writes our pieces on organizing, suggested I join her accountability group.
We meet Monday through Friday from 10 to 11:30, signing onto Google Meet-ups, sharing what we’ll be working on — “I’m working on my party planner book,” someone pipes up. Another has a young adult novel she’s working on. Beth’s intent on some personal essays. A fifth member is working on an animated series. And I’m determined to see if this idea I have has legs — before turning off our cameras and microphones and getting to work. Some days I get nothing done, counting the minutes until we check back in at 11:30 and share our progress. Other days, the ideas come out at a gallop. Most days I just put one word in front of the other and hope that they make sense when I reread them later.
I’ve always hated these kind of forced productivity sessions but I’m slowly beginning to come around. Maybe it’s because I’ve noticed how now, when the notification pops up that the meeting will be starting shortly, my brain makes an automatic shift, bending and stretching as it warms up to shoulder the marathon that is writing a novel. Even if I think I have nothing to say and my brain feels empty, it turns out that something always gets accomplished and I find myself looking forward to it. Who knows what’ll happen? Maybe I’ll finish this book. Maybe I won’t. But for now, I’m working on my dream project, one day at a time.