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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: This is part four of this week's five part series

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Speaker 1: on procrastination. Today's tip is about how to hold yourself accountable.

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Speaker 1: Certain kinds of work demand to be done right now.

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Speaker 1: Your boss asks you to email a file. You send it.

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Speaker 1: No one dithers about doing work like that. But other

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Speaker 1: work doesn't have to be done, certainly not now, and

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Speaker 1: maybe not ever. This is often speculative stuff that could

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Speaker 1: be a big boost to your career, but it's hard

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Speaker 1: to make time amid the emails and meetings for it.

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Speaker 1: Many people find it difficult to be accountable only to themselves,

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Speaker 1: so we figure, well, there's always tomorrow, or next week

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Speaker 1: or next year. If that's the case for you, and

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Speaker 1: you find yourself continually putting off things you really want

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Speaker 1: to do, then it might help to seek external accountability.

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Speaker 1: I have definitely sought out external accountability from my projects.

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Speaker 1: Most Fridays for the past six years, I've checked in

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Speaker 1: with my accountability partner, a journalist named Catherine Lewis. It's

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Speaker 1: a fairly casual partnership. We send each other an email

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Speaker 1: saying what we've done over the last week and what

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Speaker 1: we plan to do in the next week. There aren't

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Speaker 1: exactly teeth to the system. I won't get in trouble

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Speaker 1: if I haven't done what I told Catherine I do.

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Speaker 1: But if I've said I'm going to spend time brainstorming

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Speaker 1: book ideas and then I don't, I need to explain it,

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Speaker 1: and that provides a nudge to consider maybe making some

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Speaker 1: time for it instead. I found this helpful when I

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Speaker 1: was trying to write a novel a few years ago.

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Speaker 1: I didn't have a book contract or anything. I just

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Speaker 1: had a story in my head about a small town

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Speaker 1: Pennsylvania basketball team that I wanted to tell. So I

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Speaker 1: told Catherine I wanted to write two thousand words week,

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Speaker 1: and every Friday i'd email her to tell her I've

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Speaker 1: done just that. I did this week after week until

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Speaker 1: the momentum took over and I wound up devoting every

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Speaker 1: hour I could find to writing the book that became

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Speaker 1: The Courtlant Boys. What I have made the time without

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Speaker 1: my accountability partnership, Well, maybe what I do know is

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Speaker 1: that i'd written a skeletal draft of this book back

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Speaker 1: in two thousand five and then had done nothing with

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Speaker 1: it until that winter of two thousand, so clearly I've

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Speaker 1: been putting it off for a while. I'm now trying

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Speaker 1: to do something similar with another novel. I wrote a

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Speaker 1: fifty thousand word draft during National Novel Writing Month back

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Speaker 1: in November. When you write a novel in a month,

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Speaker 1: it's generally not going to be a good novel. So

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Speaker 1: I know this manuscript is going to need heavy editing

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Speaker 1: before I show it to anyone. This will take time,

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Speaker 1: and it's purely speculative. Again, I need to convince myself

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Speaker 1: to stop putting it off and may time for it

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Speaker 1: amid the other things going on in my life. So

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Speaker 1: I posted a synopsis and a timeline on my blog

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Speaker 1: Laura Vanderkam dot com. I told my readers to hold

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Speaker 1: me accountable. A few have now told me they want

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Speaker 1: to read it, so I feel accountable to them to

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Speaker 1: get this thing done in a reasonable time frame. In

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Speaker 1: any case, if you tend to put off big things,

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Speaker 1: or have something big that keeps getting rolled to next

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Speaker 1: week's to do list, think about who might hold you accountable. Well,

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Speaker 1: someone like a spouse might seem obvious. This is a

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Speaker 1: complex enough relationship that many people find it better to

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Speaker 1: seek out someone else. Maybe it's someone in your same

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Speaker 1: industry like Catherine and me, but maybe not someone you

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Speaker 1: have to work with or see every single day. Or

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Speaker 1: you could form a small group you agree to meet

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Speaker 1: once a month or even once a week virtually and

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Speaker 1: discuss your progress. Or maybe it's your social media followers.

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Speaker 1: If you truly do care about them and what they think,

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Speaker 1: then this can nudge you to positive changes. So spend

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Speaker 1: some time today thinking about who might hold you accountable

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Speaker 1: for your big goals. Reach out and offer to help

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Speaker 1: that person as well, work out a timeline, figure out

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Speaker 1: how you'll connect and share progress. For most people, this

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Speaker 1: can be that extra little nudge to move your priorities

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Speaker 1: from someday two. Now. Do you have an accountability partner

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Speaker 1: or group. I'd love to hear about it. You can

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Speaker 1: email me at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media

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Speaker 1: dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: listening and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod

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Speaker 1: that's b the number four, then Breakfast p O D.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that before Breakfast is spelled

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Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look

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Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production

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Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.