An Effective Way to Hold Yourself Accountable

Another way to better stay accountable to yourself for getting your priorities done daily/weekly is to write 7-10 questions to ask yourself daily–and then post it in a place that forces you to look at it, with a time designated to ask the questions.

Questions should revolve around your quarterly stretch goals: What are you not doing at optimum levels now that, if you focused on them daily/weekly, would vault you faster to those goals? The questions need to be specific enough as to not give yourself a pass for not hitting a definitive target that leads to progress.

Questions can revolve around:

Personal/wellness targets:

• Have I exercised 20 minutes today?
• Have I avoided all junk food today?
• Did I get 7-8 hours of sleep last night?

Family targets:

• Do I have our next date night/vacation scheduled and planned?
• Did I leave work at work and give my family full focus?
• Did I lead my peaceful children’s bedtime ritual?

Leadership targets:

• Have I specifically affirmed at least 3 employees/colleagues today?
• Did I walk into workspaces of my team to ask how I could help them?
• Did I put the vision back in front of my team?

Personal growth targets:

• Did I read professionally for at least 20 minutes?
• Did I reach out to another leader to learn something from her/him?
• Did I try something new this week?

Time management targets:

• Did I accomplish my 3 top priorities today?
• Did I avoid procrastination and stay on schedule/attack my priorities in the morning?
• Did I plan for a successful tomorrow before leaving work/going to bed today?

And, speaking of targets, have you yet subscribed to my e-inspiration newsletter called Target Practice, that comes out 1-2x’s per month? It gives you a few practical articles to stimulate your life and leadership growth. It’ll pop up when you visit www.paulcasey.org–just plug in your name and email.