Accountability Co-working Helps Tackle the Overwhelm

I’ve been trying to work up a logistical approach for at home or gig economy work to increase my attention and focus on important tasks – such as finishing up the products that I know will help all of us as we do third stage of life organizing. It work for all types of tasks.

Why? 

• I am very distractible.  Once engaged in a task I am hyper-focused and will not want to disengage, even if it is not of major importance or anywhere near the top of my list.
• In my home the distraction factor is ten times higher than when I’m in a task specific location.  
• Covid constraints have played havoc with my daily life and health.  
• Being physically distant in the interpersonal interaction in which I still engage lacks the sensory input that helps me keep my depression at bay.  A Zoom meeting for dozens just doesn’t have the personal feedback that, to me, means real connection.
• I miss the interaction of a smart and creative women-focused local group which met to discuss, share, and communication methods of social and communication tools I had built over the course of about 10 years through meetup.com.  

I tried quite a few methods that just did not gel for me, when I remembered a spin-off group some classmates used, when I was taking a course during the first 9 months of the Covid lock-down, in it they would schedule a several hour daily work sessions with regular check-ins to help each other, share their successes, and refocus for the next work period.  It seemed to work well for them, especially for the groups that had some connection between them or their work that created a camaraderie between them.  

I decided to set up a Zoom group for my old meetup group.  We still had a private Facebook group for the regulars of that meetup group.

I set up meetings at different times and days the first week, and identified two times and days that worked for me that also attracted at least two other people.  

It is beginning to feel right. We have met several times.

Structure

We advertise one four-hour-session per week. The times alternate on a two week cycle. The day stays the same.

We meet up on Zoom for up to 15 minutes at the top of the first hour. Then we meet at the top of each following hour for check-ins and help if necessary. The rest of the time we are working on the tasks, projects we mentioned at the top of the hour.

I have the meeting link set up in Zoom to be a recurring nonspecific time meeting.  The link remains operable across days and  times when done this way.  Then, I publicize the meeting day and time and re-share the link privately in our group as an event with a discussion post reminder.  I find this works very well.  I do it this way because I do not want any part of anything related to my work to be Facebook dependent. I have everyone’s email so I could drop the FB part and just email folks.  

The Purpose

The purpose:

• is to meet with sharp, bright women so as to provide encouragement and support to each other as we work in parallel
• is to be there to answer each other’s questions, or bounce ideas off each other.  
• is to provide a “report structure” outside oneself for the independent researcher or solopreneur when needed for that extra nudge that is sometimes needed to stay on task. Staying on task can be difficult.
• We all need to see friendly faces we can rely upon occasionally.
• It is not at all difficult to make excuses to myself about productivity and putting things off.  When others are involved it is becomes far more difficult to procrastinate. 

Essentially, what I need is accountability to self, and I can achieve this through accountability to others. Whatever works. Right?

I’m sharing this article so even those of us who have not been formally diagnosed with ADHD can try out virtual co-working to see if it works for us. Why Virtual Co-Working Works So Well for High Achievers With ADHD .

So what works for you?