Point.

I never managed anything resembling Inbox Zero, and I failed at the Pomodoro Technique. I aspire to be a two-marshmallow person, but couldn’t bring myself to Eat the Frog. I love journaling, so I tried some bullet journaling, but those beautiful plans didn’t make it off the journal page and into real life.

The only thing that has ever worked for me for more than a day or two is this point system I invented. It’s really just my own vaguely gamified version of accountability.

It’s simple, really. I give myself points for doing things that I want to do, and the harder it is to get myself to do a thing, the more points it is worth. So, for example, I get one point for rolling out of bed before 6:30, 2 points for going out for a run, and 3 points for lifting weights. That point total can be translated into money to spend on frivolous things. (I started off with 1 point being $1, but then realized that my budget works better if I do 2 points/dollar. This is not financial advice. My goal was just to be able to reward myself for accumulating points.)

That kind of works.

But the thing that makes this system a real stinker, is that I set Weekly Goals for myself as well. I have goals about exercising frequently and making progress on my projects.

If I complete all of my weekly goals, I give myself 20 extra points for the week. Yay me! But if I don’t complete all of my weekly goals, I subtract 20 points from the total. That’s a 40-point spread, and it hurts when I miss my weekly goals! It’s enough for me to turn down watching TV with the fam because “I have to finish my goals.”

This week one of my goals was to publish something (anything) and put it out into the world. To put an even finer point on it, it was the last goal on my list of weekly goals and clearly the frog in the bunch. And I didn’t eat it first. But … here I am, under the wire.

Point.