How I create accountability for my research and writing

100:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,860Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast, where academic clinicians learn the skills200:00:05,860 --> 00:00:11,260to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.300:00:11,260 --> 00:00:17,340As clinicians, we spend a decade or more as trainees learning to take care of patients.400:00:17,340 --> 00:00:22,380When we finally start our careers, we want to build research programs, but then we find500:00:22,380 --> 00:00:27,780that our years of clinical training did not adequately prepare us to lead our research600:00:27,780 --> 00:00:29,180program.700:00:29,180 --> 00:00:35,480Through no fault of our own, we struggle to find mentors, and when we can't, we quit.800:00:35,480 --> 00:00:40,580However, clinicians hold the keys to the greatest research breakthroughs.900:00:40,580 --> 00:00:46,200For this reason, the Clinician Researcher podcast exists to give academic clinicians1000:00:46,200 --> 00:00:51,800the tools to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.1100:00:51,800 --> 00:01:01,060Now introducing your host, Toyosi Onwuemene.1200:01:01,060 --> 00:01:03,720Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast.1300:01:03,720 --> 00:01:07,460I'm your host, Toyosi Onwuemene, and it is such a pleasure to be talking with you today.1400:01:07,460 --> 00:01:10,540I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to me.1500:01:10,540 --> 00:01:13,860It is the reason I keep speaking, because you keep listening.1600:01:13,860 --> 00:01:17,860So thank you for keeping me going.1700:01:17,860 --> 00:01:26,500And so about a day or so ago, I talked about the way you can accomplish any of your research1800:01:26,500 --> 00:01:29,220and writing goals by creating structure.1900:01:29,220 --> 00:01:34,580And one of the questions that was posed to me was about how do I get accountability for2000:01:34,580 --> 00:01:36,620my writing goals?2100:01:36,620 --> 00:01:39,580How do I get accountability for my writing goals?2200:01:39,580 --> 00:01:46,260And I want to share with you how I create accountability for my research and writing,2300:01:46,260 --> 00:01:48,540especially with regards to my writing goals.2400:01:48,540 --> 00:01:51,340And this is important because when I first started, I was a binge writer.2500:01:51,340 --> 00:01:53,220Oh my goodness, binge writing.2600:01:53,220 --> 00:01:55,300That's a problem.2700:01:55,300 --> 00:01:56,300But I was a binge writer.2800:01:56,300 --> 00:02:01,620I would literally wake up one day and vomit on paper or in a Word document for seven or2900:02:01,620 --> 00:02:03,820eight hours at a stretch.3000:02:03,820 --> 00:02:08,020But I, you know, to be honest, you can do that.3100:02:08,020 --> 00:02:09,900Sometimes I would even pull an all nighter.3200:02:09,900 --> 00:02:13,340It sounds funny to me to do that now, but it really was my go-to strategy and it was3300:02:13,340 --> 00:02:14,340working.3400:02:14,340 --> 00:02:18,660Things were moving forward, but I learned something that changed my mind.3500:02:18,660 --> 00:02:21,620I learned something and I'm going to share some of what I learned with you.3600:02:21,620 --> 00:02:26,340But the one of the most important things I learned is writing is a daily habit that you3700:02:26,340 --> 00:02:27,340do every day.3800:02:27,340 --> 00:02:30,140And it's like, whoa, writing every day?3900:02:30,140 --> 00:02:31,860I mean, yeah, I'm writing my patient notes.4000:02:31,860 --> 00:02:35,220It's like, no, writing for your research.4100:02:35,220 --> 00:02:36,220Do it every day.4200:02:36,220 --> 00:02:38,140Minimum of 30 minutes a day.4300:02:38,140 --> 00:02:40,100Don't even try to do more than 30 when you start.4400:02:40,100 --> 00:02:41,100Just do it every day.4500:02:41,100 --> 00:02:42,820And that really changed.4600:02:42,820 --> 00:02:44,180It transformed my writing.4700:02:44,180 --> 00:02:45,180It transformed my writing.4800:02:45,180 --> 00:02:47,380I have explosive, huh, explosive productivity.4900:02:47,380 --> 00:02:49,500It's like, what does that even mean?5000:02:49,500 --> 00:02:54,300But let's just say relative to where I used to be, because what you can create sitting5100:02:54,300 --> 00:02:58,660down in one spot for eight hours, maybe every couple of months, is different from what you5200:02:58,660 --> 00:03:02,180can create sitting down for 30 minutes every day, daily without fail.5300:03:02,180 --> 00:03:05,580And when I say daily, I do not write on the weekends.5400:03:05,580 --> 00:03:10,580I mean, honestly, I have my own personal writing projects, but I don't write for my research5500:03:10,580 --> 00:03:11,580on the weekends.5600:03:11,580 --> 00:03:14,700I'm very much a Monday to Friday writer, and sometimes, actually, it's really Monday to5700:03:14,700 --> 00:03:15,700Thursday.5800:03:15,700 --> 00:03:18,500But, yes, daily writing.5900:03:18,500 --> 00:03:19,700It's a keystone habit.6000:03:19,700 --> 00:03:23,940OK, I'm giving away some of my secret sauce here, but let me start.6100:03:23,940 --> 00:03:26,780Number one is I have writing goals.6200:03:26,780 --> 00:03:28,140I have writing goals.6300:03:28,140 --> 00:03:31,940And remember, I had an episode recently, you should check it out, where I talked about6400:03:31,940 --> 00:03:34,060creating a strategic plan.6500:03:34,060 --> 00:03:39,480And the strategic plan is really a summary of my research and writing goals for the quarter.6600:03:39,480 --> 00:03:43,780And so I own my plan.6700:03:43,780 --> 00:03:44,780I think about it.6800:03:44,780 --> 00:03:46,980I say, what do I want to accomplish this quarter?6900:03:46,980 --> 00:03:51,620And I especially focus on the things that no one is going to force me to do.7000:03:51,620 --> 00:03:55,500I have no accountability unless I create accountability for myself.7100:03:55,500 --> 00:03:56,700And so I write them down.7200:03:56,700 --> 00:04:03,700The first thing I do is I write down my writing goals, and I write it down as part of my strategic7300:04:03,700 --> 00:04:05,340plan.7400:04:05,340 --> 00:04:09,660And whether you create a strategic plan or not, writing down your goals is so key, it's7500:04:09,660 --> 00:04:15,540so important, because the moment you commit them to a Word document or pages, whatever7600:04:15,540 --> 00:04:23,580you use, the moment you commit them to paper, you've kind of made like a compact.7700:04:23,580 --> 00:04:27,340I mean, is it reversible, only if you choose?7800:04:27,340 --> 00:04:30,620But you've made an announcement, you've declared that these are my goals.7900:04:30,620 --> 00:04:38,660And all of a sudden, you kind of are accountable to the thing you've already put down on paper.8000:04:38,660 --> 00:04:40,140And granted, that's not going to be enough.8100:04:40,140 --> 00:04:44,140I'm going to show you a little bit more about how you get accountability, because writing8200:04:44,140 --> 00:04:47,260it down is one form of accountability.8300:04:47,260 --> 00:04:52,900But you got to go beyond the accountability of you, because you have accountability.8400:04:52,900 --> 00:04:55,380The moment you write something down, it's become real.8500:04:55,380 --> 00:04:59,740You've made it real, but only you've seen it.8600:04:59,740 --> 00:05:03,740And depending on how well you keep compacts with yourself, you may or may not think it8700:05:03,740 --> 00:05:05,500can be broken.8800:05:05,500 --> 00:05:11,380But the first step, the very, very first step, is to actually have writing goals and to write8900:05:11,380 --> 00:05:16,380them down.9000:05:16,380 --> 00:05:18,220That's number one.9100:05:18,220 --> 00:05:21,540Number two is now the accountability piece.9200:05:21,540 --> 00:05:27,500I share my strategic plan publicly from my accountability group to see.9300:05:27,500 --> 00:05:34,180Now we have a forum, we have a site that we go to, and we write using tools on that site.9400:05:34,180 --> 00:05:38,940And my accountability group, it's kind of like our home base, and so we can see documents9500:05:38,940 --> 00:05:40,460that are posted, things like that.9600:05:40,460 --> 00:05:46,140And to be honest, I don't know how many of the members of my peer mentoring group, there9700:05:46,140 --> 00:05:50,780are four of us, I don't know how many of them go to look at my strategic plan.9800:05:50,780 --> 00:05:53,980And granted, they've looked at it in the past, so I know that they could.9900:05:53,980 --> 00:05:59,820But now we've done the process enough times, gosh, we've been doing this now for at least10000:05:59,820 --> 00:06:01,580four years now.10100:06:01,580 --> 00:06:05,100So and that's four years times four quarters, is it three quarters?10200:06:05,100 --> 00:06:09,940Yeah, four times four, it's 16.10300:06:09,940 --> 00:06:13,980And so I think now we've done it often enough that we're not necessarily going to look for10400:06:13,980 --> 00:06:15,980each other's plans, but we still do.10500:06:15,980 --> 00:06:21,100Anyway, the point that I'm making is that it's a publicly posted plan so that people10600:06:21,100 --> 00:06:24,620can hold me accountable for it, so that people can look at it and say, well, this is what10700:06:24,620 --> 00:06:26,780you said you were going to do.10800:06:26,780 --> 00:06:27,780How is that going?10900:06:27,780 --> 00:06:31,500And I will tell you, you know, these things are not written in stone.11000:06:31,500 --> 00:06:33,120They're not like written in blood.11100:06:33,120 --> 00:06:34,620They can change.11200:06:34,620 --> 00:06:37,820And invariably, what I find is that I've kind of overdone it.11300:06:37,820 --> 00:06:38,820I've overshot.11400:06:38,820 --> 00:06:44,380I've been very ambitious, and I like to be very ambitious and then be disappointed that,11500:06:44,380 --> 00:06:46,100you know, I was overly ambitious.11600:06:46,100 --> 00:06:51,940But you know, so sometimes I say these are the grandiose things that I have planned and11700:06:51,940 --> 00:06:54,340they don't all work out exactly.11800:06:54,340 --> 00:06:55,340But you know what?11900:06:55,340 --> 00:06:56,780Some of them do.12000:06:56,780 --> 00:07:03,100And in writing them down and declaring them, making them public, that's the pathway to12100:07:03,100 --> 00:07:07,100making sure that they move forward.12200:07:07,100 --> 00:07:10,100And so I make my writing goals public.12300:07:10,100 --> 00:07:11,580And that is number three.12400:07:11,580 --> 00:07:12,580And here's the thing.12500:07:12,580 --> 00:07:14,220Oh, what did I say?12600:07:14,220 --> 00:07:16,180Yes, I share my strategic plan public.12700:07:16,180 --> 00:07:17,180That was number two.12800:07:17,180 --> 00:07:20,460Now I moved on to number three without announcing that it was number three.12900:07:20,460 --> 00:07:22,580But every week I make my writing goals public.13000:07:22,580 --> 00:07:28,420And part of what I do is that in our writing accountability group meetings, we all, you13100:07:28,420 --> 00:07:29,620know, check in with each other.13200:07:29,620 --> 00:07:30,980We'll say, how was last week?13300:07:30,980 --> 00:07:32,620What writing did you accomplish?13400:07:32,620 --> 00:07:35,460And what goals do you have for your writing next week?13500:07:35,460 --> 00:07:37,060It's the question we always end with.13600:07:37,060 --> 00:07:40,460We always ask also, like, what are you celebrating?13700:07:40,460 --> 00:07:44,980But we always end by asking, what are you doing next week?13800:07:44,980 --> 00:07:47,980And sometimes we haven't thought about what we're doing next week.13900:07:47,980 --> 00:07:50,380And so when they ask, what are you doing next week?14000:07:50,380 --> 00:07:54,020Then it forces you to sit and say, well, what am I doing next week?14100:07:54,020 --> 00:07:55,340What makes sense?14200:07:55,340 --> 00:08:00,660And then you begin to share goals that now someone else has heard.14300:08:00,660 --> 00:08:06,260And so you know that next week someone's going to ask you, well, how did it go?14400:08:06,260 --> 00:08:07,980How did these goals go?14500:08:07,980 --> 00:08:11,180And so every week I publicly share my plans.14600:08:11,180 --> 00:08:14,740And even when we're not able to meet, because our group is not always able to meet every14700:08:14,740 --> 00:08:21,820time, we make it public on the site where we're all going back to so that somebody is14800:08:21,820 --> 00:08:24,340aware of what the writing goals are.14900:08:24,340 --> 00:08:29,060And so every week I make my writing goals public.15000:08:29,060 --> 00:08:31,780The next thing, number four, is I share my wins.15100:08:31,780 --> 00:08:36,720And so when I succeed, I say, hey, hey, this is what worked.15200:08:36,720 --> 00:08:38,280This is why it worked.15300:08:38,280 --> 00:08:41,480This is how amazing I felt because it worked.15400:08:41,480 --> 00:08:43,100I share my wins.15500:08:43,100 --> 00:08:47,960And the reason I share my wins is because when I share my wins, I have to make explicit15600:08:47,960 --> 00:08:51,900what is in my mind, what is implicit to me.15700:08:51,900 --> 00:08:56,540I have to make explicit what it was about the win that made it a real win.15800:08:56,540 --> 00:09:02,140And because of that, I kind of like solidify it in my mind of why it's a win.15900:09:02,140 --> 00:09:05,140You know, because your mind plays tricks on you and it tells you you haven't accomplished16000:09:05,140 --> 00:09:06,540anything, you haven't done anything.16100:09:06,540 --> 00:09:08,220You've been done with your whole week.16200:09:08,220 --> 00:09:10,000Your mind will always do that.16300:09:10,000 --> 00:09:14,900And so by sharing a win, I tell my mind, no, no, no, you're wrong.16400:09:14,900 --> 00:09:15,900This was amazing.16500:09:15,900 --> 00:09:18,360And this is why it was amazing.16600:09:18,360 --> 00:09:24,900And so sharing my wins with my accountability, my research and writing accountability group,16700:09:24,900 --> 00:09:28,060enables me to really see what I've accomplished.16800:09:28,060 --> 00:09:30,580And it just fills me full of joy.16900:09:30,580 --> 00:09:33,680So it also drives me to want to do more.17000:09:33,680 --> 00:09:37,940So every week I make my writing goals public.17100:09:37,940 --> 00:09:38,940That was number three.17200:09:38,940 --> 00:09:39,940Oh, wait a minute.17300:09:39,940 --> 00:09:40,940I keep going backwards.17400:09:40,940 --> 00:09:41,940That was number four.17500:09:41,940 --> 00:09:44,460I share my wins with my accountability group.17600:09:44,460 --> 00:09:45,460Okay.17700:09:45,460 --> 00:09:46,460All right.17800:09:46,460 --> 00:09:51,900Number five is, you know, it's great to share wins, but then, you know, there's some stuff17900:09:51,900 --> 00:09:52,900I missed.18000:09:52,900 --> 00:09:57,740And so number five is that I explain what happened with the other things that didn't18100:09:57,740 --> 00:09:58,740work.18200:09:58,740 --> 00:10:03,100So invariably, I list, perhaps in the week before I said, okay, I'm going to do these18300:10:03,100 --> 00:10:04,100five things.18400:10:04,100 --> 00:10:07,020And then I come back and I'm like, these three things, I did them.18500:10:07,020 --> 00:10:08,980Oh my gosh, so awesome.18600:10:08,980 --> 00:10:12,100And my group is like, rah, rah, rah, great job.18700:10:12,100 --> 00:10:14,580And they're like, but you had five things.18800:10:14,580 --> 00:10:18,140What happened to the other two?18900:10:18,140 --> 00:10:23,460And this is the opportunity where I say, hey, well, what happened was maybe I overdid it.19000:10:23,460 --> 00:10:26,560And they're like, well, how could you do things differently next time?19100:10:26,560 --> 00:10:27,560And it's a great group.19200:10:27,560 --> 00:10:29,060It's a peer, it's a peer coaching group.19300:10:29,060 --> 00:10:30,060So we're coaching each other.19400:10:30,060 --> 00:10:31,660It's really beautiful.19500:10:31,660 --> 00:10:35,940But I share my wins and then I explain what happened with the stuff that I didn't win19600:10:35,940 --> 00:10:37,660at and it's okay.19700:10:37,660 --> 00:10:39,560You know, it's not a place of judgment.19800:10:39,560 --> 00:10:41,260It's not a place of pointing the finger.19900:10:41,260 --> 00:10:42,780It's just helping me again.20000:10:42,780 --> 00:10:45,660This is about me processing in my mind.20100:10:45,660 --> 00:10:46,660So what didn't work?20200:10:46,660 --> 00:10:48,140Why didn't it work?20300:10:48,140 --> 00:10:51,300What could you do differently next time so that it does work?20400:10:51,300 --> 00:10:58,080And that's the power of going through the process of documenting what happened and why20500:10:58,080 --> 00:11:00,820things didn't work like they were supposed to.20600:11:00,820 --> 00:11:07,340Number six, and I believe it's the right number six this time, is I set my intention for the20700:11:07,340 --> 00:11:08,420following week.20800:11:08,420 --> 00:11:11,180I say, hey, this is what I did last week.20900:11:11,180 --> 00:11:12,940It was so awesome.21000:11:12,940 --> 00:11:14,900This is what didn't work out.21100:11:14,900 --> 00:11:16,340That's why it wasn't so awesome.21200:11:16,340 --> 00:11:20,180But next week, I'm going to go with four things now, not five.21300:11:20,180 --> 00:11:23,340I'm going to go with four because I know I can make four.21400:11:23,340 --> 00:11:26,140I set my intention for the following week.21500:11:26,140 --> 00:11:31,660And again, in setting that intention, it is a public intention, and I have a plan in my21600:11:31,660 --> 00:11:35,300hand to move forward with in the next week.21700:11:35,300 --> 00:11:37,780And number seven is I execute.21800:11:37,780 --> 00:11:40,340I have a plan, and I go do it.21900:11:40,340 --> 00:11:46,620I go do it writing every day because I know, I know that next week somebody in my group22000:11:46,620 --> 00:11:49,900is going to say, what happened to this goal?22100:11:49,900 --> 00:11:57,300I know that I will need to give an account of my plan, like how did it work?22200:11:57,300 --> 00:11:58,300Why didn't it work?22300:11:58,300 --> 00:12:00,300And because of that, I go execute.22400:12:00,300 --> 00:12:01,300I go do the writing.22500:12:01,300 --> 00:12:05,100I go do the work I said I was going to do so I can come back and share more wins.22600:12:05,100 --> 00:12:07,380And that's a really awesome thing.22700:12:07,380 --> 00:12:11,700So I have just given you seven things, seven ways in which I get accountability for my22800:12:11,700 --> 00:12:12,700writing goals.22900:12:12,700 --> 00:12:15,180I talked to you about my keystone habit of writing.23000:12:15,180 --> 00:12:16,820I actually have the writing goals.23100:12:16,820 --> 00:12:18,980I make the goals.23200:12:18,980 --> 00:12:23,140And I share my strategic plan publicly for my group to see so everybody knows what my23300:12:23,140 --> 00:12:24,740plan is for the whole quarter.23400:12:24,740 --> 00:12:28,060And then number three, each week I make my writing goals public.23500:12:28,060 --> 00:12:32,580I say, hey, these are the goals that I'm going to accomplish.23600:12:32,580 --> 00:12:34,980And I share my wins with my accountability group.23700:12:34,980 --> 00:12:35,980That's number four.23800:12:35,980 --> 00:12:39,260And then I explain what happened with the wins that I didn't have, with the goals that23900:12:39,260 --> 00:12:40,260I missed.24000:12:40,260 --> 00:12:42,940And then number six, I set my intention for the following week.24100:12:42,940 --> 00:12:44,540I say, I'm going to make this happen.24200:12:44,540 --> 00:12:45,660I decide.24300:12:45,660 --> 00:12:47,660I decide.24400:12:47,660 --> 00:12:48,660And then I go do it.24500:12:48,660 --> 00:12:53,500And I go do it because I know people are looking for me and they're going to ask me.24600:12:53,500 --> 00:12:58,300And because I value their opinion and their respect, even though they're not there to24700:12:58,300 --> 00:13:03,380judge me, I execute knowing that I'm going to need to explain to them how come it didn't24800:13:03,380 --> 00:13:05,460work, if it didn't work.24900:13:05,460 --> 00:13:09,220So those are my seven ways that I get accountability for my writing goals.25000:13:09,220 --> 00:13:10,540And I want to invite you.25100:13:10,540 --> 00:13:14,220How do you get accountability for your writing goals?25200:13:14,220 --> 00:13:15,900What does your writing look like?25300:13:15,900 --> 00:13:17,700I want you to think about your writing.25400:13:17,700 --> 00:13:22,020Whatever it is today, even if it's awesome, it could always go to the next level.25500:13:22,020 --> 00:13:24,980So don't say, oh, this is not me.25600:13:24,980 --> 00:13:26,540My writing is great.25700:13:26,540 --> 00:13:29,460Even when your writing is great, it can always go to the next level.25800:13:29,460 --> 00:13:33,740So I invite you this week to think about your current accountability structures for your25900:13:33,740 --> 00:13:36,740research and writing and think about how could they improve?26000:13:36,740 --> 00:13:38,500How could they be better?26100:13:38,500 --> 00:13:44,140Or maybe you're in a place where you're like, oh, I don't even have any anything at all.26200:13:44,140 --> 00:13:47,120I have no accountability for my research and writing.26300:13:47,120 --> 00:13:50,020I do the binge writing thing every once in a while.26400:13:50,020 --> 00:13:55,020Or maybe you're just not sleeping night after night during this binge writing thing.26500:13:55,020 --> 00:14:01,620Think about how you could create structure and accountability for your research and writing.26600:14:01,620 --> 00:14:05,260And as you find things that I didn't tell you because I only gave you seven and there's26700:14:05,260 --> 00:14:11,860so much more, come find me and tell me about what your plans are about what you've been26800:14:11,860 --> 00:14:16,180doing to create accountability for your research and writing.26900:14:16,180 --> 00:14:17,340All right.27000:14:17,340 --> 00:14:19,380So that's the end of today's episode.27100:14:19,380 --> 00:14:24,180And I want to remind you that we have webinar coming up next week, Monday, November 20th27200:14:24,180 --> 00:14:29,860at 6 p.m. and I will tell you about how you too can transition successfully from clinician27300:14:29,860 --> 00:14:32,540to a research leader.27400:14:32,540 --> 00:14:34,060I look forward to seeing you there.27500:14:34,060 --> 00:14:36,780Please share this episode with somebody else who needs to hear it.27600:14:36,780 --> 00:14:38,100It's been a pleasure.27700:14:38,100 --> 00:14:49,140Have a great day and thank you for listening.27800:14:49,140 --> 00:14:54,500Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher podcast where academic27900:14:54,500 --> 00:14:59,700clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they28000:14:59,700 --> 00:15:01,300have a mentor.28100:15:01,300 --> 00:15:07,420If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself.28200:15:07,420 --> 00:15:09,180Someone else needs to hear it.28300:15:09,180 --> 00:15:13,220So take a minute right now and share it.28400:15:13,220 --> 00:15:18,680As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation28500:15:18,680 --> 00:15:24,340of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do health28600:15:24,340 --> 00:15:25,340care.28700:15:25,340 --> 00:15:39,500Thank you very much.