We talked about Accountability buddies last week. They are a good way of getting something done by outsourcing your check-ins to a friend or colleague. Having a buddy there to remind you to do something is not only good for forgetting - it also adds in a social motivator to do what you promised. That’s great for anyone but it’s especially great for those of us that have troubles with follow through for a variety of reasons. The ADHD coaching team at inflow[1] wrote an article that breaks down the hows and whys of accountability partners a little further.
In her article Katie Barrick describes the similarities and differences between Accountability buddies, co-work sessions, and body doubles, and how they work to get you on track.
The Affinity group Women in Tech have regular Pomodoro coworking sessions. With Co-work you work with other people virtually, live or hybrid and have regular breaks and the occasional check-in. The Pomodoro timer method, named after the tomato shaped kitchen timer that inspired it, is used to set work sprints of between 20 mins and 1 hour (typically). For a lot of us it’s a lot easier to focus on a task when there are a bunch of folks following the same manageable structure. That relates to a phenomenon called the Hawthore effect[2] which basically states that a person's behaviour changes when they feel that they are being watched. A bit like a Copenhagen interpretation for humans[3], much like subatomic particles, the act of observing fundamentally changes what is happening.
Body doubling on the other hand is working with another person around you. Now the person doubling with you doesn't have to be strictly doing a working session like you are; they could be sitting in the same room with you playing on their phone while you clean or video call with you virtually while you work on your computer. We (Shelly and Heath) do body doubling remote work moderately often, from either side of the globe. Work is interspersed by the occasional fun fact, chortle or question about something that we are working on, but after that goes back to the task at hand. Usually there are 2 people in a body double session (hence the name).
Accountability buddies, as we talked about last week, can help us realise our goals by planning with us and regularly checking in on us with motivation and encouragement. They are largely independent work sessions and often reciprocal. Those goals could include (to name a few):
There are many ways, and resources for productivity. Love to hear your favourite ones.
Shelly & Heath
Resources
I need to find an accountability buddy who will make me get my butt out of bed at 5 am and go to the gym! Maybe an accountability robot who will yank my ankle?
I'm a Peloton junkie and I have a group that I ride with around 5/5:30 a.m. during the week. We are all over the country, but knowing I'll see them on the leaderboard and the chats we have on Facebook before and after rides really motives me to get up on days I don't want to. (And I'm in withdrawal since my surgery and haven't been able to ride. I'm waiting up at that time even though I don't need to get up for another hour.)