Find an accountability buddy
Metadata
- Author: New York Times
- Full Title: Find an accountability buddy
- Category:articles
- Published Date: 2021-01-08
- Document Note: Accountability is a powerful tool for achieving health goals, according to Gretchen Rubin, author of “Better Than Before.” Holding oneself accountable is particularly effective for making and breaking habits. One way to create accountability is to check in with a friend or a fitness buddy to discuss healthful eating or to schedule a workout. Participating in social media or apps that can send reminders, such as Fitbit or other smartwatches, can also help increase accountability. The presence of an accountability buddy can add peer pressure, but it is important to focus on behavior rather than success or failure.
- Summary: Accountability is a powerful tool for achieving health goals, according to Gretchen Rubin, author of “Better Than Before.” Holding oneself accountable is particularly effective for making and breaking habits. One way to create accountability is to check in with a friend or a fitness buddy to discuss healthful eating or to schedule a workout. Participating in social media or apps that can send reminders, such as Fitbit or other smartwatches, can also help increase accountability. The presence of an accountability buddy can add peer pressure, but it is important to focus on behavior rather than success or failure.
- URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/well/live/habits-health.html
Highlights
- If you want to make positive changes in your life, try building on a lesson many of us learned in 2020: Hold yourself accountable. (View Highlight)
- Accountability works best when it comes from the outside. You can create accountability by checking in with a friend every day to talk about healthful eating. You’re more likely to exercise if you’ve made a plan to walk with a friend or scheduled a workout with a personal trainer. You can create public accountability by declaring your intention on social media. (View Highlight)
- Note: I’ve been thinking about the “You can create public accountability by declaring your intention on social media.” For quite some time now, but I have always been held back by the fact that I may be doing it for the attention. For the praise that I would get if I would publicize my goal. And that is something that I don’t want to happen.
- If you prefer to stay accountable only to yourself, you can create accountability by using an app that sends you daily reminders or by wearing a Fitbit or smart watch to track your exercise habits. You can even hold yourself accountable through a daily journal entry. (View Highlight)
- Note: Through a daily journal entry and through a reminder from an application. But more often than not, I end up ignoring these reminders, and that’s not something that I should be doing.
- A 2018 North Carolina State University study of 704 people enrolled in a 15-week online weight-loss program found that participants with buddies lost more weight and waist inches than those who took the course without buddy support. (View Highlight)
- Find an accountability buddy. Choose a friend who wants to achieve a similar goal and make a plan. Accountability might mean meeting each other once or twice a week for a walking date. Or it could be a daily text check-in to see how you’re doing on a diet or a Zoom call to work on a decluttering project together. (View Highlight)
- “Some people are very accountable to themselves, but not most people,” said Dr. Tim Church, a well-known exercise and obesity expert and chief medical officer for Naturally Slim, an app-based behavioral health program in Dallas. “In my years of working with thousands of people, there’s one thing that drives accountability more than anything else: If you want to keep people doing a behavior, get a buddy.” (View Highlight)
- “An accountability partner is there to support you, to problem-solve and to celebrate even the small victories,” Dr. Church said. “Judgment is the quickest way to destroy all that. People are so hard on themselves. You don’t need to be hard on them.” (View Highlight)
- Use an app. An app is a great way to add accountability to your day. Meditation apps like Headspace and Calm will send daily reminders and track your progress. The weight-loss app Noom asks you to check in for a few minutes each day, complete mini-health courses and track what you’ve eaten. The Fitbit app counts your steps, will sync with your smart scale and vibrates to remind you to get up and move. (View Highlight)
- Set reminders. Once you set a health goal, hold yourself accountable by creating calendar reminders to help you achieve it. Schedule walk breaks or daily or weekly check-ins with your accountability buddy. (View Highlight)
- Declare it on social media. Telling your friends on social media that you’re cutting back on packaged foods, or sending a tweet every time you finish a class on your exercise bike creates virtual accountability. Commit to posting on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or another platform every time you complete a goal, or share your feelings on days you’re struggling. When you declare your goals on social media, you’re likely to find a like-minded friend who will want to join your journey and offer words of support. (View Highlight)