Ever since the pandemic began, I have read quite a lot of productivity and self-help books. And while most of them have different approaches to different subjects, a lot of the time, there are a few things that they say repeatedly; a few things that, judging from how many books repeat the same thing, are almost more than essential for success in life.

Certain essentials like these are: 

1. Planning of one’s days, which is something that I am proud to say I am getting more and more consistent with, 

2. Waking up on time to do certain routines, which is one topic that is a bit controversial in the self-help world, but that would be a topic for another day, 

3. Being organized and 

4. Being accountable, most preferably to an accountability partner.

Now, I have to say, some of the authors that talk about this aspect of productivity; in fact, a good number of them, are very vague when they come to this subject area, in the sense that you never really can tell, even though this is something that they advise readers to do, that they do this. But I will get to that later.

So, in essence, what or who is an accountability partner? 

This is someone who keeps you on track of your goals; and who you give an account of how far you have gone with the goals that you have set out for yourself whether on a daily, weekly, or a monthly basis. He or she is also someone who sometimes m has the power to dish out some form of punishment if you fail to accomplish the tasks that you have set out for yourself.

The reason why having an accountability partner is so popular amongst productivity experts can be perfectly captured in this statement given by Simon Sinek in an interview on ‘Capture Your Flag’:

“…as social animals, we feel the responsibility to each other… you can wake up in the morning and always come up with an excuse why you should not go for a run today, always. Sometimes I am good at it, sometimes I am not, but when I have a running buddy and they’re waiting for me, I don’t want to let them down, I don’t want to ruin their run… so the whole point of having other people invested in whatever work you’re doing means that you’re more likely to do it not because of you, but because you do not want to let them down…”

Productivity Youtuber Hafu Go in one of his videos titled: ‘How this morning routine changed my life’, shows a practical way in which one can function with the help of an accountability partner. According to him, every morning, by 8:30 am, he has an accountability call. This means that he places a call to his accountability partner, and then they tell each other all that they plan to do for the day.

According to him, if he is late or misses the call, he has to pay a hundred dollars to his accountability partner. The same goes for the partner as well. Also, he says that at the end of the day, they also place another call to each other to check whether they accomplished all that they had set for the day.

In his book, ‘Atomic Habits’, James Clear provides yet another version of how one can use an accountability partner to sustain habits that one wishes to build. He makes mention of something called a Habit Contract which; according to him, is a verbal or written agreement in which one states one’s commitment to a particular habit and the punishment that will occur if one does not follow through. Then one can proceed to find other people to act as one’s accountability partners and sign off on the contract too.

He also provides his view on why having an accountability partner is great for success. According to him, we are always trying to present our best selves to the world. We care about the opinions of those around us because it helps if others like us. This is precisely why getting an accountability partner or signing a habit contract can work out so well.

Of course, if I begin to give details of all the productivity gurus in the world and what they have to say about keeping accountability partners, I will never be able to finish this book. The logic of having one is simple. It is easy to let ourselves down; too easy, at times, as I can tell from experience. But when you have someone or a set of people who hold you in some regard, it becomes difficult to let them down, unless you belong to that very rare group of people who do not give a care in the world what other people think about them. The idea is a very nice one, and it can be great for one’s productivity if one can get a committed accountability partner.

But the question and one that I have seen no one address is; how plausible is it to have a committed accountability partner? How possible is it for every person who wants to grow to have someone to call twice a day to tell what the person wants to do and how the person plans to do so and then give a report as to whether the person did so?

It is not, unfortunately. Even in one’s closest group of friends, it is difficult to have a person with the same plans as one has, and that is willing to develop this habit of always being accountable to the other person and vice versa.

And this is not just an opinion, it is an objective fact. In an ideal world, every person will find it easy to get another person to grow together with, but for some people, probably even most, this is not the case.

At first, I thought that I was the only one who was finding it difficult to find an accountability partner. I had tried telling some people, including family members and friends, of my need to have an accountability partner, but no one was really in for it. And I thought that I was the only one with this dilemma. 

But then, in every video that I watched that had something to do with accountability and the importance of having an accountability partner, I noticed that there were a lot of people in the comments section who seemed as perplexed as I was on how to find an accountability partner. Even amongst the few people that I had in my Whatsapp contact list, I saw a bunch of people who were practically begging for people to be their accountability partners on their statuses.

Clearly, I was not the only one that was having problems with this area of productivity, and the fact that I could not find any to assist me was telling on my productivity as being committed to a particular habit that I wished to perfect was something that I found increasingly difficult to do.

But then, one day, after finding out that there was one of my friends that had somewhat of an accountability partner and then asking the person to be mine, only to receive an unenthusiastic response, I began to wonder, was the traditional, literal meaning of an accountability partner the only way to get myself to be accountable?

 Surely, there had to be another way, surely I could not be doomed just because I could not get that one person that was willing to watch over my life for me and make sure that I was doing all that I needed to. Of course, if I could get such a person, my life would be great, but did the fact that such a person was unavailable mean that I was just going to give up on accountability all together?

But then, after some thinking and praying, I began to receive some divine insights. And then I realized something, I was taking this accountability partner thing a bit too literally. An accountability partner did not have to be one person, it could be a bunch of people for different sorts of habits that you may want to work on. It could be a team, a club, a checkmark drawn across a calendar each day, or an app that tracks the days that you do a particular thing. An accountability partner could be any group of people or anything. The point is that it had to suit my goals and be the push that I needed to achieve the things that I needed to achieve.

Going a little further on the interview that was given to Simon Sinek, when the interviewer asked him who his accountability partner was, I expected him to mention the name of some guy that he had that kept tabs on him, just like the Youtuber had, but then he gave this reply.

“I have my team. I have the people who have taken bets on me and risks on me, anybody who says I believe in you and they just leave me to go do it… my publisher says, see you in a year, and well, I have to give him something really good to prove to him that it was worth it.”

These were his words. He did not say, “Yeah, well, I have my friend Jimmy over here. He has been the person that I have been talking to twice a day for the past five years, and the fact that I communicate with him is the reason that I am as successful as I am today.” All he did were list a bunch of people that he worked with, calling his team and his publisher as his accountability partners, and then mentioned a very vague group of people, who I do not know where to categorize into. He did not have the sort of accountability partner that I had been looking for, and he had managed to be as successful as he is today.

I had been going about the wrong way in my search for an accountability partner for a very long time.

THE USE OF DEVICES FOR ACCOUNTABILITY

Even before my eyes were open to understanding that there were several things that were actually serving the purpose of being accountability partners; there were a lot of apps that served the purpose for me. Of course, the one thing with apps is that they can never really be substituted with humans, as you can decide to close your eyes and delete an app every time that it got on your nerves, or ignore the open gaps on your phone’s calendar where you did not check off certain boxes that you should have checked off, indicating that you may have missed some days of a habit.

But one thing that I have found is that if you put your mind to it; your apps could serve as your productivity partners. They have worked for me sometimes too, like during:

·        times in which I had downloaded exercise apps and was determined to finish the entire 90-day exercise programmes, not ending till I was done,

 

·        the periods that I have been determined to sustain the streaks on the Bible app on my phone,

 

 

·        and times in which I made sure that I reached the level of a champion on the app that tracked the amount of time that I spent on my phone, especially on unproductive apps, and almost completely cut off all of my social media as a result,

 

·        and that time that I used the study bunny app to ensure that I read for some hours every day- although I have moved from the app to Study YouTubers.

In fact, upon further research, I have found that there are productivity gurus that do not subscribe to the typical accountability partners I sought for and have found ways of keeping themselves accountable, ways that have been just as effective as having a person to report to.

They are:

1. Habit Tracking:

One of the ways that a lot of the productivity gurus use is a means or method that Cal Newport calls “the chain method” in his book, “Deep Work” and something that James Clear calls a “Habit Tracker” in his book, “Atomic Habits”.

This is a very simple way to keep yourself accountable and it works in a way that keeps you willing to go on when working towards a particular goal by ensuring that you do the hard but necessary things daily. This is how to make effective use of a habit tracker or a chain or a streak:

a)     You need to use either a calendar or a little book with gridlines.

The one to use depends on whether you want to track just one habit or many habits. If you want to track only a habit, like perhaps studying daily, I would suggest that getting a calendar and ticking off days that you read would be effective. But if you would like to track multiple habits, I suggest that a gridded book would do just the task for you. In that way, you can write the days of the week on one edge, the activities that you would like to do at the other end, and then tick off the days that you did each of the activities, ensuring that you leave the spaces on the days missed.

b)    Ensure that you limit the use of this to just a few tasks. As the author of Atomic Habits stated, it can get exhausting and demoralizing if you decided to track every single habit or activity that you do daily.

 

c)     If you do not think you would be able to make use of a book, your phone calendar can be effective for the same purpose.

The benefit of using your phone is that it drops notifications informing you of tasks that you have set out to perform and all that you would have to do is to click a button if you have accomplished that task. If you feel that the use of a book would be too exhausting, make use of this. But if you are like me and hate the sound of notifications and have put your devices in the do not disturb mode for years now, this might not quite be the choice that you should go for.

And that is it; it is as simple as that.

Now, during school days, I make use of a gridded notebook to track just a singular habit, the amount of time that I spend reading, using the grids to track hours spent. It is easy for me to keep track of this because a lot of the time, I make use of the 50/10 Pomodoro technique used by study Youtubers and I can just tick or shade after an hour has passed.

 

2. The Progress Journal:

There is another way to use a book and a paper as an accountability partner, and I have to confess, that while this may work for you, it has not been much of a help for me.

It is something known as a Progress Journal. Now, this is not just writing about the goals that you were able to accomplish as most people use the Progress journal for, but according to Cal Newport in his book, “How to Win at College”, the optimal use of the Progress Journal is to list both what you set out to accomplish for the day at the beginning of the day, and then at the end of the day, record those activities that you were able to accomplish. 

The idea behind recording any discrepancies between the work that you set out to accomplish and the work that you actually accomplished is that the thought of having to record in your journal that you accomplished none of the work that you scheduled for the day should be enough to motivate you to do the work that you are expected to do. After all, the fact that it is written down makes it permanent in a sense and no one wants a permanent record of their temporary laziness.

Now, I prefer ticking work accomplished rather than having to use a work progress journal but if you think that this is just what you need, then get onto it. 

But, again, you cannot replace the effect that people have by the use of paper or apps on your phone. As I said before, it is easier to give up on using paper or pen whenever you want but with people, it is far more difficult.

REPLACEMENTS TO THE TYPICAL ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER

But as I said earlier, having the ideal accountability partner is just not idealistic for most people. So, how do you get the people element required for you to get work done?

Now, this is one that has been giving me quite a headache, but I think that in some activities, I have finally cracked the code.

Take reading for instance. I love reading, but I prefer novels to productivity or spiritual books, although I have read tons of productivity books. I can sacrifice hours of my days to finish a series of books but with self-help books, I tend to be very relaxed, can get bored sometimes, and tend to take my time. Even more important is the fact that because reading productivity and educational books are not something that a person tends to do on autopilot, I needed to have to exert myself to choose those books instead of the novels that I loved reading. After I noticed that the time I spent on the books I needed to read was depreciating, I decided that I needed a way to sort of compel myself to read at least a book a month, jot down what I had read, and then review the book so that the contents stick to my mind. 

After wondering how to go about that for a while, the Holy Spirit dropped exactly what I needed to my mind. Of course, an online book club!

So, due to the fact that I had received the divine instruction to begin the book club in the fellowship in which I am an executive, I started with it. And one thing that I have noticed ever since I started with the book club is that whilst not every member of the club is as active as I would want all of them to be; because I am the one that manages the club, I am compelled by the forces of not wanting to appear as the most irresponsible and incompetent leader ever, to finish the books and jot down all that I need to talk on before I begin to ask other members if they have also done the same. By creating a group of people, sort of a family, and being the one acting as the leader over them, I have no other choice but to do the needed, not only because of the benefits that reading the books would bring to my life, but because I do not wish to appear incompetent and undisciplined to others.

Again, I have noticed that my spiritual life has had a boost ever since I have become an executive of a fellowship. Not only have I taken on new consecrations, but I am actively working towards building my faith because I understand that I am a leader and I do not want to fail in that regard. Therefore, even on days of weariness, I find myself pushing as much as I can to do the things that I know would boost me spiritually. 

I think that this should be called the power of belonging in a group or a team of people with like interests. Why have only one person to give you the peer pressure that you need to grow when you can have a group of people to do the same thing for you?

HOW TO GET AN ACCOUNTABILITY TEAM

Getting a group of people to serve the purposes of an accountability partner works in different ways.

1.     Groups and Communities: 

 One of such for students is a study group. I do not belong in any formal study groups back at school because I have not taken that to be a priority for me- I mean, the fact that I need to maintain my CGPA is enough motivation for me to ensure that I do the necessary reading, but I believe that it is also a means of getting the accountability you need if the fear of exams does not do it for you.

2.     Online Communities: 

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 This is also an effective substitute to the physical ones. For instance, if you love to exercise, joining a group chat in which all the participants are expected to report on their exercise regime can do it for you. There are several communities that are available for all sorts of habits and if you only take the time to look, you will find one that suits your needs.

3.     Social media influencing: 

There is another way to do this, an even broader way. But sadly, this does not apply to everybody. If you are like me and you are invisible in the world of social media, this may not be ideal for you.

But if you are, then I know of a woman who makes use of social media to keep herself accountable as she tries to get fit. The rule for this is simple. If you have a reasonably large following, and you promise them that you are going to do a particular thing daily, then that is all the motivation that you need to do that thing daily and announce it to your followers. Any day that you miss doing that particular thing, it will not be a secret that you can just keep to yourself, but you can be assured that the entirety of your followers would be aware of that. And if you think that your self-criticism is bad, wait till you promise to stop doing something to your reasonably large followers, only to end up coming the next day to your followers to tell them that you slid back to your toxic habits. 

There are a lot of YouTubers and influencers that do this, using the fact that they have a large following of people who may sometimes, not be so caring when they feel that they deserve to be frank to the person, to ensure that they keep tabs on what they are expected to do.

One of the most extreme versions of this is when the people not only announce that they have performed a particular habit but actually film themselves doing the said habit.

I think that this is the point in which I do a little introduction to the people that have completely altered how I viewed the limits on human energy and have transformed the way that I used to view reading; Study with Me live streamers.

These are the set of people that, because they have an obligation to the people watching them, have actually dedicated their time to streaming themselves reading long stretches of time at a day, and hence achieving their academic goals. We have people like Heleen of Study Vibes, Ari Horesh, A Studies, and James Scholz- who managed to read 12 hours a day for an entire year- think about that for a hot minute. 

As Heleen once confessed in one of her videos, she is fully aware of the fact that without the channel, she would not be reading as much as she does currently. Of course, this is a scary concept even for me, but you have to admit, if you can pull it off, there is no better way to push yourself to do the needful for your life.

When I am talking about social media, this will also be mentioned as a great way to show the world that social media is not just a toxic platform where Gen Z’s go to let the last of their brain cells die, compare themselves to others and quarrel over irrelevant topics.

Even if you have a small following, if you think that this is the way to let yourself get on track with your habits, then get on with it.

I had this in mind when I decided to start this online diary. Having promised that I will be releasing a personal growth diary at least once a week, this is enough to ensure that I grow and study books on what I need to do to help me grow.

Now, we individuals are fickle-minded and find it difficult to stick to habits on days that we lack motivation. But if you can find your way to keep yourself accountable, whether it is through the traditional way or some innovative way that you have thought out for yourself, it is a great way of ensuring that you do the needful and move forward in life.

Now, before I end this long piece of prose; before you go about to start looking for a mere man to be an accountability partner for you, let the Holy Spirit be your accountability partner, especially when it comes to the spiritual things. If you are sensitive enough to pay attention to his thin, small voice, you will notice that he is constantly ever ready to push us to do the things that we are expected to do, things that we need to work on, not just to edify ourselves, but also God in heaven.

REFERENCES

1.     Atomic Habits by James Clear.

2.     Deep Work by Cal Newport.

3.     How to Win at College by Cal Newport.

4.     Simon Sinek on How Accountability Partners Keep You Committed: https://youtu.be/qd10-f9bzu0.

5.     How this morning routine (quickly) improved my life: https://youtu.be/Aj-LeB3ioGw.