I Took a 7-Day Challenge to held me accountable — Here's What Happened

We all have that one project we keep pushing to “next week.” For me, it was my personal website. I knew I needed a space to showcase my work, share my thoughts, and truly own my digital identity—but it always ended up on the back burner.

I even built a version once, but ran into some issues I couldn’t quite resolve. So it just sat there, unfinished.

This time, I decided to do something different: I gave myself a 7-day accountability challenge.

💡 Why a Challenge?

I wanted to stop overthinking and just ship. But I also knew I’d need some external motivation to stay on track. That’s when the idea hit me:

“What if I recorded myself every day while working on the site?”

At first, these recordings wasn’t meant for an audience—it was just for me. I have a very small amount of subs on my channel. So, there is nothing to lose. A way to stay honest, track my progress, and embrace the imperfections along the way.

🎥 The Setup

Each day, I hit record and work. No fancy editing, no filters—just raw building and thinking out loud.

My stack:

Framework: Next.js

Styling: Tailwind CSS and custom CSS

Deployment: Vercel and Github Action

CMS: MD files

Here's how it broke down:

⭐ Day 0: Announcement and todo list

This was the accountable video. On pressing "PUBLISH" button means now there is no lookibg back from here. This is the hardest thing but this is how I started.

Watch on my YouTube Channel: Day 0: announcement

⭐ Day 1: Code time

Day 1 was only focused on coding part and finish the tasks.

Watch on my YouTube Channel: Day 1: Code, code, and code

⭐ Day 2: Break pages

Day 2 and a few days from now would be just about designing work.

Watch on my YouTube Channel: Day 2: Break page

I forgot to hit the record button but I worked on the decided todo. However, while working on the todo I realised that once you start working on a task how many sub-tasks start emerging (lol)

⭐ Day 3:No design work for today

Got bore of design work. I was a designer but doing only design work is very boring for me

Watch on my YouTube Channel: Day 3: No design work for today

⭐ Day 4: I can't escape the design work

I realised most of the pending work on my website was design work and I was sitting on those because I don't enjoy desgining work. However, I am pushing myself to do it.

Watch on my YouTube Channel: Day 4: More design work

⭐ Day 5:Figna and me

I did some figma design for about me page.

Watch on my YouTube Channel: Day 5: Figma and Me

⭐ Day 6: Last 20%

Today was very hard for me to work on the tasks. After office, I only wanted to relax. Trust me I had 100 of excuses but I pushed myself to work on my challenge. Glad I did!!

Watch on my YouTube Channel: Day 6: Last 20% is the hardest

⭐ Day 7: and it is last day

Most of the work was related to designing and it was boring for me. However, I am happy I was consistent in doing and finishing a challenge I took.

Watch on my YouTube Channel: Day 7: Last day

For me the last 2 days were challenging. With office and comfort zone recording myself was very hard. But I pushed myself. And I was able to do it.

⭐ Wrap up

Watch on my YouTube Channel: Day 8: Wrap up video

What's next?

I was able to still keep working on my blog. Since the challenge is over , I have added the following features:

1. "time to read" feature to every blog

2. "filters" to quickly filter blogs

3. Re-design my blog of "My reading list : 2025"

What I learned?

1. Momentum beats perfection. Committing to small daily goals is powerful.

2. Recording myself helped me stay focused, reflect, and improve.

3. Done is better than perfect. My site isn’t “finished,” but it’s live.

4. Accountability works. Even if it’s just you watching yourself back.

Happy Learning!!