5 Brilliant Tips to Hone Self-Accountability Skills as a Writer

by Peter Clarke

It takes fire in the belly and constant hunger to make a difference with words and creativity to become a writer. The task of writing or the idea to pursue writing as a full-time career requires you to be self-disciplined on various grounds. No matter what you choose to become, an academic essay writer, blogger or ad copywriter, you have to be self-accountable. Gauging one’s progress and growth as a writer, identifying the setbacks and working on them constantly are some of the most crucial aspects.

Unless you know how to hone self-accountability skills and implement them in your work, becoming a successful writer will be a tough nut to crack. So, make sure you abide by the following five essential self-accountability tips to fuel your writing endeavours.

Happy reading!

1.     Maintain an Excel Sheet to record the daily word count

If writing is a serious business for you, then I feel safe to assume that you might be having bulk client projects to work daily. It's a known fact there will be a specific word limit and targets to meet each day or at the end of the month. This is where the significance of self-accountability comes in. You can always put an effort to maintain a spreadsheet and record your daily word count as well as the deficit you need to compensate.

Here’s how:

®   Sign up with platforms like Google Sheets and list the number of days in the month in one column and include your daily word count in a separate column.

®   Keep updating the sheet every day and make changes in your calculations accordingly.

®   This will help you monitor and evaluate the number of words you have written on a day and the deficit you need to chase for the rest of the month.

Keeping track of your daily word count will also help you intimate your client regarding the targets achieved and other essentials constructively. You will also be able to showcase professionalism on your boss.

2.     Utilise the potential of habit tracking apps

With technology creating wonders worldwide, habit track applications can help people in several ways. Especially when it comes to ensuring self-accountability in writing, habit tracking apps have a major role to play.

Here’s everything you need to know.

®   Using applications such as Loop Habit Tracker and Habitica will help you monitor self-progress with automated alerts and notifications reminding.

®   If you want to maintain a healthy flow while writing, habit tracking apps will help you stay productive.

®   Moreover, clients want to deal with writers who are self-motivated and dedicated to meeting deadlines by all means.

®   The alert notifications sent by these apps will act as a wake-up call if you end up missing out on reworks, including an additional chunk of paragraphs and the likes.

So, isn’t it a productive decision to embrace this strategy and improve your self-accountability in writing?

3.     Set your own writing goals

Even though the concepts of writing habit and writing goals go hand in hand, they are a tad different. When you set writing goals, you plan how to approach a particular blog, ad copy or an article. You create your ways to conduct the needful research and the likes.

Here’s what you must know about establishing writing goals.

®   If you find any particular project too complicated, make a list of all the potential research platforms you would like to explore for the task.

®   You may refer to digital forums such as ResearchGate, Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar and the likes.

®   Once you are done establishing your research goals, move on to the segment of outlining the final draft of your write-up.

®   Now, set your deadline. For example, if you are associated with an architecture dissertation writing  firm and your client wants you to deliver the case study within 48 hours, stay ahead of it.

®   Make it a point to wrap up the case study within 36 hours. Approach the paper accordingly, accumulate all key findings beforehand and stun your client with delivery before the actual deadline.

That’s how you establish and meet writing goals. When it comes to self-accountability, you got to walk that extra mile and make your presence felt among thousands of others.

4.     Work on one writing project at a time

The term ‘multitasking’ may sound cool, but it isn't everyone's cup of tea. To be very honest, there’s no credibility being a multitasker, only to ruin too many jobs at the same time. Especially when you are writing, and there's creativity associated with the task, you must always attempt one project at a time.

Here are some recommended suggestions that will help you through the process.

®   Dedicate separate writing hours for various projects.

®   For example, if you have the same deadline for two different writing projects, then refrain from working on them simultaneously.

®   Instead, chalk out a plan and dedicate a couple of hours in the morning to working on Project A, and commence Project B in the afternoon.

®   That way, you will be able to maintain a fine balance while attending bulk projects with the same deadline.

After all, working on one task at a time is easier than trying to hop around multiple projects. If you attend one particular task with complete focus and diligence, the overall quality of your write-up will automatically level up. Think it over!

5.     Reward yourself often

You don’t need to wait for your clients or managers to appreciate your writing endeavours. Instead, you can reward yourself and appreciate your effort towards the achievement you're a part of. For example, if you have successfully finished the writing project much ahead of the deadline, writer can try rate my paper for writing error fix. &  it is an achievement. So, why would you wait for others to appreciate it while you can do a lot many things to cheer yourself?

Take note of these ideas and game up self-accountability like a pro.

®   Set deadlines in terms of submission before the actual deadline, or set goals to reach the mark of typing 10,000 words in a day.

®   Once you achieve something huge, reward your effort by buying yourself your favourite pair shoes, go on a movie date or take a casual break from work.

®   These are nothing but ways that will help you identify yourself as a promising writer who can climb up the ladder amid all obstacles.

All that matters is a pat on the back to get us going. At times, you need to be your cheerleader. If it can make you a better writer, more accountable human being and a go-getter, then what’s the harm in rewarding yourself?

Summing up,

It won't matter if you are a writer offering should use spell checker  or someone from the ad copywriting agency; we all are selling words at the end of the day. Let’s make it worthwhile. Refer to the strategies mentioned above, focus on the key pointers and make your move towards becoming a better writer with each passing day.

Keep hustling. Keep growing!

Author Bio: Peter Clarke is an experienced writer, associated with the Law assignment help forum MyAssignmenthelp.com. Apart from that, he is a motivational speaker,  Psychology dissertation writer, NGO activist and digital education program coordinator, coming from Glasgow, the United Kingdom.

Take The Guilt Out Of Writing

A writer's worst enemy is procrastination.

The second thug in our lives is procrastination's close cousin - responsibility.

Too often our writing time is carved out of the day, the niche of a few minutes where there isn't food to make, laundry to do, floors to sweep, lawns to mow, weeds to pull. The terrible truth about the to-do list I just ripped off is this: it never ends. The food will be eaten, the laundry will get dirty again as will the floor. Grass grows, and weeds (unfortunately) grow even faster.

Very rarely do we treat writing as a responsibility on its own. Even when I'm under contract or on deadline, writing still very much feels like something I do for myself. Because writing is a solitary undertaking, it's easy to identify it more as me time than as something that requires a true work ethic in order to be properly executed.

Squaring these two facts is no easy feat. Sitting down to write can often feel like a guilty pleasure if there are dirty dishes in the sink, or socks on the floor. While the to-do list is daunting, it cannot go ignored - unless you don't mind starving, stinking, living in filth, and being covered in ticks from your yard. And if all of those things sound just fine to you, I'm guessing that finding some alone time isn't all that much of a challenge anyway.

I recently went on a writing retreat, which is something I've always pooh-poohed in the past. I used to think that if I took a writing retreat, I would laze about, act like I'm in a coffee commercial while I sit on the deck of a cabin, then take long walks in the woods while pretending that I'm in some sort of medication commercial. None of these things would bulk up the word count, so I always thought a writing retreat was a euphemism for I'm going to get drunk in the woods and play Tetris on the laptop but keep a serious look on my face while doing it so that everyone thinks I'm writing.

Surprisingly, I wrote quite a bit while hanging out in a cabin, and starred in exactly zero imaginary commercials. I realized on the second day that the reason why was because I wasn't worried about laundry, floors, lawns, food, or any other myriad of responsibilities present in day-to-day life. I could sit down and write without guilt.

I realize that leaving home for three days might not be in the cards for everyone, realistically. But the lesson remains - next time something is stopping you from sitting down to write, ask yourself if it's actually the chore that is the obstacle, or the guilt?

Because if it's the guilt, don't worry - the chore will be there tomorrow.

Your inspiration might not.

The Power of Procrastination

There are two things I'm good at.

1) Writing
2) Not Writing

Seriously. I am so awesome at not writing I could write a book about it. Which would be really freaking ironic, wouldn't it?

Today I said I would start the new manuscript, writing at least 1k words, which is my minimum daily word count goal. There were other things I needed to do today too, but since writing is my actual job I needed to consider doing it.

And I would.

After I changed the bedsheets.
Also I needed to write a blog post.
And defrost a whole ham.
And coffee would be good.

I sat down with the coffee and the laptop, the sound of the washer tossing my bedding around in the background. I answered some emails, did some tweeting, realized I didn't brush my teeth yet, and then my dad called.

A tree fell down and he needed another chainsaw handler to get the job done. The tree in question was in my grandpa's yard, and if I didn't go over there, Grandpa (who is 94) would pick up the extra chainsaw himself. Now, honestly, I think that would've worked out just fine (evidence to come), but I'm the kind of person who really enjoys physical labor so I helped chop up a tree in 90+ degrees.

We worked for a few hours, and finally Grandpa decided he was done watching and picked up a 40 pound maul and started splitting wood. Like, really effectively. We're talking single swings. It was impressive.

I was sweaty and smelly and covered in chips and sawdust, but it was time to go home. And who can sit down and write when they smell bad? (Note: I still had not brushed my teeth). So since I was already a mess I decided to do some touch-up painting on the cupboards that we redid in the kitchen, and once I did that I decided since I had the ladder out I might as well spackle the holes in the ceiling from the old lighting.

And since I had the ladder out and it was obvious we were going to have to repaint the ceiling, I might as well take down all the crown molding and wash the ceiling to prep it for painting.

Also I had to go find the paint floor cloths, which someone had peed on (not me, I suspect a cat) and so those had to be washed and hung out on the line with the bedsheets.

So while I was working in the kitchen I spotted that whole ham I set out in the morning to defrost, which I really should consider putting in the oven if we're going to eat tonight. 

And if you're going to make a ham then you might as well (I'm sorry) go whole hog.

So I studded it with cloves and I made a glaze out of apple cider and I put that in the oven.

And then I took a shower, because that was a thing that needed to happen. Also I did finally brush my teeth. So, it's 7PM now. I'm clean. The ham just came out of the oven. The boyfriend is cutting it up and I'm finally writing that blog post I sat down to create at 10 AM.

I did a lot of things today.

I did not start a novel.

I am so good at not writing.