Want to be part of an accountability check-in group? July 10, 2011 7:06 PM   Subscribe

Following up on my question here, chime in if you're interested in becoming a part of an accountability group. If there are more than a few people, maybe we can get more than one group started.

I'm not sure this is the right place for this, but I'd imagine it's righter than continuing on AskMeFi. If this is the wrong place, is there somewhere in the vast Metafilter empire that it belongs, or should I take it elsewhere entirely?
posted by SampleSize to MetaFilter-Related at 7:06 PM (28 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite

I think you may want to be a little more clear what you mean by accountability group, but I think like book club and health month stuff, an occational posting in MeTa to see if there's any interest is okay.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:22 PM on July 10, 2011 [1 favorite]


Ok - wasn't sure if I should repeat that here as I suspect people will be coming from the Ask thread, but I'll copy/paste:

I'm a freelancer with plenty of ideas for what I should be doing to improve my business (and life in general), but I have a real hard time getting down to work without any kind of accountability or structure in my life. So here's what I'm thinking: Find 2 or 3 like-minded people and have brief daily check-ins via video conference to state our goals between now and our next session, and how we've done since our last session -- just keeping each other honest and on some kind of schedule.
posted by SampleSize at 7:47 PM on July 10, 2011


Yes please.
posted by bilabial at 7:51 PM on July 10, 2011


A daily check-in? I'm too busy, to be honest, to manage this. What about a Google or Yahoo group and weekly check-ins?
posted by Ideefixe at 8:39 PM on July 10, 2011


yes. dear sweet monkey gods, yes.
posted by batmonkey at 8:47 PM on July 10, 2011


Might this not be perfect for Metafilter's own HealthMonth? You can set your own daily guidelines, so productivity and work could be your rules. Accountability is built right into the thing. I've only just started this month, and I'm not usually a fan of this sort of thing, but I am very pleasantly surprised at how effective this is.
posted by Cobalt at 8:56 PM on July 10, 2011


Yes please .
Only I can not do video conference yet ... Maybe later , if/when I'll have different computer , now I can only email and send pictures .
Could people have a choice of daily or weekly ?
Would be so beautiful to help and support each other -- to keep up the good work !
I went to the local baseball game ( first time in my life ) and it was a revelation -- players would be congratulated every few minutes for their work by their teammates .
posted by Oli D. at 9:11 PM on July 10, 2011


I'm in.

My preference would be for:

- Weekly check-ins (much too busy for daily)
- Text chat not video chat (too scarred by fat grandpa penis on Chatroulette to video chat with strangers anytime soon)
- A smallish group (<1> - Not in a game format like Health Month, just a chat session and maybe swapping email addresses for messages/inspiration between check-ins
posted by dontjumplarry at 9:53 PM on July 10, 2011


For that deconstructed Japanese emoticon, read "under 10"
posted by dontjumplarry at 9:56 PM on July 10, 2011


This sounds like something I'd be interested in
posted by MighstAllCruckingFighty at 10:04 PM on July 10, 2011


daily is good for keeping daily work . That's the reason for the whole thing , not to lose momentum when things get hard , keep moving . And of course I'll be busy , so daily check-in could be very short .
How about : "weekly" -- longer talks ?
posted by Oli D. at 11:02 PM on July 10, 2011


Yes! But not a big fan of the video thing. E-mail and text are fine.
posted by Ostara at 11:11 PM on July 10, 2011


I'm not terribly interested in this but I'll note that Google Hangout seems perfect for a regular video conference check-in. It's a part of Google Plus.
posted by Kattullus at 12:37 AM on July 11, 2011


It's a part of Google Plus.

I feel like I'm on the outside looking in at something potentially cool (but of course when you finally do get in the food is bad and the pretty people have left).
posted by maxwelton at 4:05 AM on July 11, 2011


I'm fine with video, or not-video, as people would like.
posted by piato at 4:10 AM on July 11, 2011


I'd love to join a weekly check in group. Definitely not video, but I'm happy - indeed, would prefer - to do it on Google Plus. Also, I'm in the UK, so that might make email a better option than a live chat.
posted by tavegyl at 4:31 AM on July 11, 2011


Could someone define what, exactly, an accountability group is? Like Jessamyn, I'm kind of in the dark here.
posted by dunkadunc at 7:06 AM on July 11, 2011


If this works for you then great, but approaches like this may not help everyone in all circumstances. See Shut up! Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them:
Four different tests of 63 people found that those who kept their intentions private were more likely to achieve them than those who made them public and were acknowledged by others.

Once you've told people of your intentions, it gives you a “premature sense of completeness.”
posted by caek at 7:11 AM on July 11, 2011 [3 favorites]


I'd love to join in on this, but is it ok if I'm not a standard freelancer?
posted by mismatched at 7:28 AM on July 11, 2011


I'm very interested.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 7:35 AM on July 11, 2011


I'm in. I think having brief daily check-ins is key, with longer weekly chats a good option. I can't do video.
posted by freshwater at 8:28 AM on July 11, 2011


I'd like to give this a try as well
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 8:33 AM on July 11, 2011


I'm willing to do some organizing because I 1) want this to happen, 2) am procrastinating the work I'm supposed to be doing. Sigh.

Anyway, here's a quick google form I put together for anyone interested. It should automatically populate a spreadsheet, which I can also share once there's some data in there -- it seems pointless to put up now.
posted by mismatched at 10:12 AM on July 11, 2011


Thanks mismatched!
posted by dontjumplarry at 2:15 PM on July 11, 2011


Hey some cool stuff happening here. I'm proud to have started it! I think I'm close to having my group of 4. Mismatched, that is freakin cool.
posted by SampleSize at 7:27 PM on July 11, 2011


Alright, I'll send an email out to all the addresses in there with the link to the spreadsheet and hypothetical groups. Anyone reading this should feel free to still fill out the form, if you haven't.
posted by mismatched at 11:54 AM on July 12, 2011


"Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them "

It depend on what kind of a plan we are talking about : if it is my vision of a new design , than if I will start talking about it instead of thinking and working on it , the energy might all be turn and spent on that talk .
If I am telling about my plan to make the work desk clean and ready in next 10 min. , after this for an hour I'll deal with bills and receipts , and till 7.00 p.m. turn off the internet and do second layer of painting on a background -- it will make my day much clearer , right ?
I will stop (I hope) thinking "maybe I will do this , and -- oh -- I remember about that ... and let's try this .... "-- and half of a day is gone ! Bam -- all day is gone. Procrastination.
posted by Oli D. at 12:06 PM on July 12, 2011


You can also hit me up by Mefi Mail if you're late to this party and want to join.
posted by dontjumplarry at 11:52 PM on July 21, 2011


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