Written by Waterworks Accounts Receivable Co-ordinator Mariana Melo
We all have two voices in our heads. One of them says “Eye on the prize. Stay focused. Reach your goals. Do the work,” and for the sake of this article we will call him Harry. The other voice says “Carpe Diem!” – ok, maybe your voice doesn’t speak Latin – it says “Seize the day! Life is short! Have fun! Indulge!” We’ll call him Billy. Harry and Billy are twins, and as such, they argue, bicker, occasionally poke each other in the eye, but also play together nicely, help each other out and protect each other, even with all their differences. Harry is stern, sharp, focused, predictable, realistic, and disciplined, but also slightly lifeless, pessimistic, inflexible, controlling, and let’s be honest, plain old boring. Billy is loud, enthusiastic, expansive, visionary, bold, joyful, and optimistic, but also restless, unrealistic, self-indulgent and overbearing.
Many of the productivity issues we have at work come down to one of those voices speaking louder than the other, which end up throwing us a bit out of balance. Remember they are twins, and they both deserve to share the main stage. Some of us are naturally wired to allow one of those voices to speak louder than the other, which will have a huge impact on how we work and even the type of work we do.
When we allow Harry to speak louder than Billy, it feels like there is no purpose to what we are doing, and all of this focus and discipline is just hard work for hard work’s sake. You will do the work and reach your goals, and then start it all over again – but for what? It feels exhausting.
When we allow Billy to take over, we live in a world of instant gratification – yes let’s have just another coffee, eat the cake, have fun, enjoy life - now! And the price we pay for this is not reaching our goals and not moving forward with our plans.
Now imagine if we could do our work in a way that allows the twins to work together nicely. Here is what would happen:
- We would have purposeful goals and celebrate when we reach them
- We would work hard with enthusiasm and optimism
- We would be joyful, without losing focus
- We would have big bold ideas, followed by an actionable plan to make them happen
- We would be motivated and disciplined at the same time
How does this sound?
In the world of business, we have a tendency to think that the only voice we need in our heads is Harry’s but trying to push Billy aside simply doesn’t work. He is a sneaky little rascal and will demand your attention in the middle of your focused work.
With this little story in mind, we can find the key to holding ourselves accountable to doing the work and achieving our goals and the answer is to give Billy your undivided attention at times, so he doesn’t keep inconveniently interrupting us.
To explain this more clearly, we first need to understand that laziness is a myth. It doesn’t exist. What exists is priorities. If you think about it, even when we are doing “nothing” we are actually always doing “something”. You are not being lazy, you are simply prioritizing something else, and it is usually something that will give you some kind of instant gratification and pleasure, as opposed to that other boring task that would help you achieve what you want in the long run.
It sounds too simple to say that the best way to hold yourself accountable is to put a reward system in place. This is true and it works, but we do it wrong. We think that the reward needs to be something big, extraordinary, and good enough to motivate us to do the work, new shoes or a trip to Paris – even though no one will be going to Paris any time soon. We usually tend pick something that is outside our usual routine, and that is where we get it wrong. This works well for achieving those big, long-term goals, but when it comes to the little daily tasks the best reward you could possibly give yourself is the gift of indulging in whatever it is you already do when you do “nothing”, guilt free, Billy styles. If you really need to indulge in that extra cup of coffee, make a deal with yourself – 10 sales calls and you get a coffee. If what you like to do is browse on social media, perhaps the deal can be – once you finish that spreadsheet you get 10 minutes of “procrasti-scrolling” guilt free. So next time you get that itchy feeling go kick the ball around, turn that into your reward. That will be your prize for finishing that newsletter you need to write. Don’t go looking outside of your daily routine for ways to reward yourself, chances are it won’t work! We all already have a handful of activities we already like to do, and these are our best weapons against procrastination.
In the end of the day, accountability is taking responsibility for our own choices and results, and the best way to ensure we are moving towards our goals is to respect Harry, and reward Billy.
