How accountability got me a first-class degree

And why we can't make it on our own...

Happy New Year Substack fam!

Repurposing a post I wrote on LinkedIn which I hope will be beneficial to you.

Me and my two friends, also of Jamaican heritage, all got first class degrees from University of Birmingham.

👉 How did we do it?

→ About a month before the start of our exams in second and third year, we decided to go to the Learning Centre (a study area near the University train station), and lock in from around 8am to 10pm every single day [except Saturdays for me].

→ We had a simple ranking system of our activities: first or fourth. If one of us saw the other on our phones, or just chatting to someone else, we'd raise four fingers. That was the signal for that person to get back to work.

Instead of shying away from our goals, we explicitly called out what we wanted, and identified a set of behaviours that were consistent with that goal, and those that weren't.

My encouragement in 2026:

✅ Be bold and confident about which goals you want to achieve.

✅ Work out which behaviours you need to incorporate into your life that will help you achieve that goal.

✅ Write out the converse - which behaviours will detract from that goal?

And now the most important part:
✅ Get one or more reliable people to hold you accountable.

Why accountability?

→ We are a generation struggling more than ever with addictive behaviours.
→ It seems like everything is conspiring against us - our lives are wildly busy, more than ever before.
→ When we fail, we have a tendency to blame our lack of willpower or self-control, not realising that society is designed for us to fail. Our phones are dopamine centres. Netflix is to be binged. Unhealthy fast food is more accessible and cheaper than nutritious food.

We can take back control of our lives by introducing the power of community and accountability.

I'll forever be proud of myself and my friends Lee Stennett and Krystal Lea for achieving what we set our mind to. In fact, Lee has a business designed around that concept called Winpact - so for any business owner struggling with that, go check it out.

Here's to a better us in 2026!