Sticking to your plans is really hard. This is why most new year’s resolutions fail, most projects are never finished and bad habits stay unchanged.

One thing that really works is getting someone else involved. I have a weekly Skype conversation with a friend who’s grilling me about the things I planned to do that week. Others are using phone calls and shared calendars to keep them accountable. Standups in scrum are there for the exact same reason: if you’re voicing your goal to get something done that day and people keep you to it, the chance that you’re actually going to finish it goes through the roof.

Want to make enormous progress on your projects? Find someone that keeps you in check. Just the thought of having to tell the other person that you didn’t follow trough but did email instead can make all the difference. And it’s fun too.

I wrote a more extensive post on accountability before.