How Tracking My Excuses Helped Me Stop Making Them
This spreadsheet system for tracking progress is deceptively simple but totally works
In the spring of 2017, I was burned-out, clinically depressed, and in thousands of dollars of credit card debt. I had just resigned from the nonprofit organization I’d co-founded and I had $732 in savings. As hard as I’d worked on fundraising, my role at the nonprofit was never going to be a salaried job, and I needed to make a big change in my life. But once I quit, I had something more valuable than money: I had time.
And with that time, I started writing a novel about a burned-out female co-founder of a wellness startup.
As underemployed as I was that spring, I had endless hours to write every day. But I struggled to use those hours effectively. I was recovering from burnout at the same time I was trying to reboot my creative process. “Feel guilty for feeling so tired and unmotivated,” I wrote in a journal. “What am I supposed to do, without the daily pile of emails to answer, events to plan, meetings to take? What’s my new rhythm?”
No one was waiting for this book. Instead of being accountable to others, I was now only accountable to myself.
