Don’t tell people what you’re working on. Tell them what you’ve done. Someone once quoted Steve Jobs saying “we don’t tell people about our future products. We work on them in silence. And then we release them.” There is psychology research backing up this method as an efficient way to accomplish one’s goals.

Research demonstrates that when you talk about what you’re going to do, your mind will process it as something that you’ve already done. Thus, you lose your drive to accomplish said goal.

There is somewhat conflicting evidence though showing that if you tell a friend, an accountability partner, your goals you will be more likely to work towards them.

So, maybe the way to parse out this information is to say, don’t tell what you’re doing to a bunch of people, because then your mind may think that you’ve already done it, but rather tell one or two people to hold you accountable.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio