????只是方法做了這樣一個(gè)小小的調(diào)整，效果之顯著令我羞愧。由于要向凱瑟琳匯報(bào)進(jìn)度，我有了每周寫(xiě)2,000字的動(dòng)力，這樣我就能寫(xiě)郵件告訴她我已經(jīng)寫(xiě)了。雖然不完成也不會(huì)真的導(dǎo)致什么后果，但在每周目標(biāo)前，從上學(xué)時(shí)期就養(yǎng)成的按時(shí)交卷習(xí)慣還是占了上風(fēng)。

????“寫(xiě)2000字”和其他付費(fèi)客戶項(xiàng)目一起列入了我的待辦事項(xiàng)列表。十周后，我已經(jīng)有了足夠的文字(20,000)可以考慮一下這本書(shū)的后半部分如何規(guī)劃。我留出了一天考慮不同的部分應(yīng)該如何發(fā)展，在那一時(shí)刻，寫(xiě)一本真正的小說(shuō)的強(qiáng)烈沖動(dòng)促使我想寫(xiě)完余下的部分。

????我把每周的寫(xiě)作數(shù)量提高到了5,000字，甚至更多，而且開(kāi)始每天一大早就動(dòng)筆，而不是考慮寫(xiě)小說(shuō)怎么能成為我人生的一部分。到了4月15日，我已經(jīng)有了草稿。

????當(dāng)然，接下來(lái)還有很有編輯工作要做，但完善一件東西總比從無(wú)到有要簡(jiǎn)單?；ハ啾O(jiān)督體系幫助我克服了從無(wú)到有的障礙。而且，正如凱瑟琳可能指出的那樣，這種方法比聘請(qǐng)職場(chǎng)教練的成本要低得多。

????如果你有一位互助伙伴，他能幫助你完成什么樣的個(gè)人目標(biāo)？（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????勞拉?范德卡姆是財(cái)富網(wǎng)站的固定供稿人，她的新書(shū)《最成功的人工作時(shí)間干什么》已于4月23日發(fā)行上市。

????I'm almost embarrassed to say how effective this little shift in approach was. Being accountable to Katherine made me want to write 2,000 words, just so I could email her and say I'd written them. There weren't any real consequences to failing, but the part of my brain that learned to turn in papers on time in school years ago leapt to attention once it had an assignment.

????"Write 2,000 words" got a spot on my to-do list along with assignments from paying clients. In 10 weeks, I had enough words (20,000) to have a sense of how I intended to shape the second half of the book. I carved out a day to figure out where various chunks should go, and at that point, the momentum of having an actual story compelled me to write the rest of it.

????I cranked up to 5,000 words or more per week, and started beginning my days with novel writing, rather than figuring out where novel writing would fit in with the rest of my life. By April 15, I had my draft.

????There's still a lot of editing work to be done, of course, but I find turning something into something better much less daunting than turning nothing into something. An accountability system got me over the nothing-to-something hurdle. And, as Katherine would point out, it was much less expensive than a career coach.

????What project in your life could benefit from an accountability partner?

????Laura Vanderkam is a regular contributor to Fortune.com and the author of What the Most Successful People Do At Work, out April 23.