Several weeks ago, I was talking to a colleague whose organization is going through some serious leadership changes. My friend was contemplating next steps and trying to come up with a new staffing plan. In essence she was trying to figure out how many people it would take to do the job of the 2 “rockstars” who are leaving. Rockstars are those people who do the work of multiple people such that when they leave, it takes more than one person to replace him or her. My colleague is unquestionably a rockstar herself.
I have been called a rockstar for most of my professional life. My commitment or dedication is no greater than that of my colleagues. I just hold myself to a very (some have said impossibly) high standard. Like many of us, I am my worst critic and am therefore always trying to do more while simultaneously doing things better. I add items to my to-do lists faster than I can cross them off, which leaves me feeling completely unproductive, regardless of how much I accomplish in a day. Trust me, this is not a recipe for success. Just a recipe for personal disappointment.
Yesterday, for the first time ever, it occurred to me that I could keep a list of my daily accomplishments just as easily as I can keep to-do lists. Instead of simply crossing things off my ever-growing to-do list, I could write down what I do in a day, whether it was on a to-do list or not. I wonder what that would do to my own impression that I get nothing done in a day? Would I find myself qualifying and diminishing everything I put on the accomplishment list? Would I just end up raising the bar? Or, would I let myself see just how much I can do in a single day?
Focusing on accomplishments over what remains to be done is not an earth-shattering idea. It is simply flipping the focus of the list around one-hundred and eighty degrees. That leads me to wonder why there are so many apps for tracking to do lists, but very few for tracking accomplishments.
I have been trying to come up with a reason to learn how to create an Andoid app for quite some time. I have been playing with the idea of making a Shakespearean curse generator app, but clearly that idea was not compelling enough for me to take the idea any further. But, I think creating an accomplishment list app for Android is something that worth following up on. If nothing else, it will be something for me to put on my list of accomplishments for that day.