Unpacking Your Year: Beyond Tasks, Creating Accountability.

We all tend to start the new year with a clean slate. The past is the past, we remember the lessons learned, and move on to conquer the future. But with all the projects, meetings, emails, texts, chats, etc. how do you hold yourself accountable, and moreover, how do you know, that all the work you do, actually has a positive impact on other people and in turn, your organization?

If you know me well, you know that i'm never satisfied, and always striving to do things differently. I'm not perfect (it's a useless expedition into the abyss), and that's okay, but keeping yourself in check throughout the year will help keep you focused, on the right path and ultimately, will give you proof that you did a thing or two, that actually made a difference, whatever field of work you're in.

Early on in my career, I would get hyped up about some new product, some new feature, or some cool thing I built or experienced. I'd often discuss it with my boss, Scott, who always had a keen eye for when I veered off into La La Land. His few words were all it took, to snap me back into focus.

"Hey that's great dude, but what have you sold today?"

At that point in my career, it was a great reminder that no matter what shiny toy I had in front of me, there was a bigger purpose at hand; and at that juncture, it was closing business. It didn't matter whether I was in marketing, strategy, sales or engineering; it didn't matter if I was a junior-level coworker or an executive; the mission was to grow the company, and that impact, was driven by sales. To this day, even though I'm not in a sales role, I still ask myself similar questions. While not everyone is in sales, this does apply to every role, you just have to figure out what your own impact is, in order to drive your team and organization's mission forward.

Later on in my career, I learned another critical lesson from my boss Leo Flynn, CFA who asked me to complete a 'new task' on a weekly basis . At first, I was upset about the ask, because it seemed unnecessary, however, it actually taught me to stay accountable to my team, and the organization as a whole. And this task I'm referring to BTW, is so simple. Every week, write an email to yourself with three things:

1. What you accomplished last week.
2. What you accomplished this week.
3. What you will accomplish next week.

There is beauty in the simplicity of this task - it's easy to do, takes five minutes and gives you so much insight, accountability and a documented track record. I fought this process for a while, because I felt it was a waste of time, until that one moment, when I realized what it was actually doing for me.

Firstly, I never seemed to get most of my tasks done the previous week. Why? Either I was distracted, put too much on my plate, or it was an unrealistic goal to begin with. Secondly, when I reflected on the current week, it seemed like I was already off to a rough start because I just added a ton more unrealistic goals to my plate, which I would then push on to next week's list. I soon grasped that I was setting unattainable goals while grappling with distractions, making minimal headway. As if that wasn't challenging enough, the guilt of repeated failures or unfinished tasks kept dragging me down, adding to the burden. Did I mention the guilt? :)

But over time, as I got better with this exercise, I learned to say 'no' more often, I re-prioritized and balanced out the tasks that would positively impact my team first, and in turn, the overall organization. I've done this for so many years now, that this simple task of reflection continually makes me question whether my work actually has any real measurable impact - and that is something I use to steer me throughout the year. No, I'm not there yet, but it keeps me in check.

Another lesson learned recently, was from my former CEO, Bracken Darrell who was quite vocal about his annual reset process. Every year, he allegedly fires and then rehires himself. Yes, this sounds a bit whacky at first, but read on, and please don't take this concept literally.

Think about what happens when you start a new job - you are happy, scared, open-eyed, inspired etc; you are probably super positive and excited about your new work experience, meeting new people and starting anew (well most people are) - and that's what he was trying to do here with this exercise. By firing and rehiring himself, he gave himself a new way of looking at the company, at our people, as the goals that we had to achieve and the paths we wanted to cross. He also invited everyone in the company to do this for themselves at the beginning of the year. If you still think this sounds crazy - try it out. Write out your own resignation letter, and then pretend you just got hired - what would be on your task list for your first day and week? What would you do differently since this is your second time at the company/organization? It is liberating in so many ways.

So you did a lot this year, as we all have. Lots of a tasks, meetings, projects, maybe launched a new product or services - great. But..did any of these things have a measurable impact? Did you sell something? Do you have a log of all the things you did and didn't do, to quantify it?

It's okay if you don't have any or all the answers today. What's important is that you begin the process of connecting the dots, so when you reset your slate next year, you can find new ways to hold yourself accountable. That could be the weekly exercise mentioned above, or just a frequent question to yourself that pushes you to connect your work, to the greater mission of the organization. Also, you could just fire and rehire yourself (Again, not being literal) and instantly restart your way of thinking.

I also tend to go through my entire calendar for the year, just scrolling through all the business trips, meetings, projects to see what I can find - was it all worth it? Was all the busy work impactful in some way? No? Well, what can I stop doing that had little to no measurable impact? There are so many ways to go about doing this, so there is no right answer here. Bottom line is - are you proud of what you did this year and do you feel accomplished - let that be your guiding light.

How do you hold yourself accountable? What tools do you use that help keep you grounded and tied to the mission of your organization? Comments welcome below...