Every Sunday evening I submit my upcoming Weekly To-Do List to my accountability buddy. I have found it essential to have someone out there who knows what I am suppose to be doing in a given week and to hold me accountable for accomplishing everything on the list. Otherwise it is just too easy to procrastinate.

My accountability buddy happens to be a good friend who is also working from home. She submits her list to me as well. We reward ourselves with lunch out each time we each accomplish our respective goals for a total of six weeks. That way we are each keenly aware that procrastination will have a consequence for the both of us — the delayed gratification of a wonderful lunch out!

If you are working from home I strongly suggest finding an accountability buddy. The next step is to figure out a way to periodically reward yourselves for accomplishing weekly goals.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of accountability — especially when working from home. The secret is to team up with someone else in the same boat, even if they happen to work in another zip code.