At 6R Retail, we specialise in project management for retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers, enhancing business processes through ERP, PLM, eCommerce, and marketing technologies. We help clients achieve strategic goals with effective change and vendor management.
As we help businesses evolve, we also recognise the significance of personal transformation. Sometimes, a life event can be formative in shifting habits and behaviours, as well as the way you see them. For me, this happened in my early thirties—a diagnosis that shifted my relationship to my own health. I’d been a relatively healthy person up until that point in my life. Without going into the details of the autoimmune disease, the doctor told me that I would spend the rest of my life on medication and that I would now need to manage this condition for the rest of my life. What shifted was how I felt about my health.
Embracing Change and Finding Solutions
I did, of course, spend some time wallowing and feeling sorry for myself, but after a reminder from the nurse on duty that I was very lucky it wasn’t worse, I shifted into re-thinking mode. I started to research different ways of managing the condition that I had. Ayurvedic medicine, which is an eastern tradition around medicine and very broadly based on the belief that each person is responsible for their own health and wellbeing and that you are the best doctor for you. That doesn’t mean that you don’t take advice from actual doctors; it’s more a way of verifying what treatments are right for you. I took the medication and listened to my doctor; at the same time, I also made adjustments in my life and looked for alternate therapies so that I could reduce the medication. And eventually, it took about five years, but eventually I got off it.
The Power of Accountability
Accountability is a little bit like conflict. There are plenty of us who avoid both conflict and accountability. I am a chronic conflict avoidant, and there are plenty of others who feel the same. The thing that makes me encourage accountability may just be that I want to avoid conflict, so I’m looking to develop self-managing systems that will reinforce the aspirational behaviors and push me in the right direction without having to have an argument about it. There aren’t many people who actively want to be accountable. But it’s one of those things that we all have to face up to at some point if we want to lift standards and improve the game. A little bit like my health diagnosis, at some point in your life, you need to take charge and decide that you are either going to influence or be a victim of it.
Strategies for Personal Accountability
Here are some tactics that I’ve used over the years as a serving suggestion for those who are keen to improve personal accountability. These are not all going to work for you or your life, but some things that work for me.
Write it Down
I try to remember to make a daily action plan and a weekly action plan so that I’m clear about what it is that I want to get done for the week. When I find myself wandering, I come back to this list and refocus. This is not an ‘always done’ type of thing, but when I do it, I’m way more on top of things and much more focused on what I really need to do. It creates clarity.
Make Space
Once I’ve figured out the list, I then put this into the schedule. Allocating actual time in my calendar to do them. Typically, my estimates are wildly off when it comes to how long it takes to do something, especially when it’s a first-timer. This doesn’t mean that I don’t move things around all the time around stuff that I need to do, but it does mean that if it’s on the calendar and it gets moved or bumped, then I need to find another spot to put it.
Set Reminders
I set reminders for myself during the day. My children laugh at me about how many reminders and timers I have. When I’ve got a big block of time that isn’t scheduled, I break it down into smaller blocks of time so that I don’t get distracted and just end up trolling the internet for four or five hours.
Having Time Without Emails and Notifications
This has been a really big shift for me. Not having email, Slack, Messenger, and Teams open all the time has meant some focused, uninterrupted time to get a task completed. It really reduces my capacity to get distracted. Just that one simple thing has made me a lot more productive in the way that I’m working, and I feel less ‘on edge’.
At 6R Retail, we believe that change is an opportunity to grow. If you’re ready to take charge of your business and embrace effective strategies for improvement, let’s connect and explore how we can help you achieve your strategic objectives. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can support your journey towards success.