The project I finished because I told someone about it

I have a pattern. I start things privately, work on them in secret, and abandon them quietly when they get hard or boring. Nobody ever knows, so there is no cost.

Last year I broke the pattern by accident. I mentioned a project to someone in passing, and they asked about it two weeks later. Just a casual question, how is it going. And it was going badly, but I did not want to say that, so I went

home and made it less bad.

That one small thread of accountability pulled me through six months of work I would otherwise have abandoned.

Not because they pushed me, but because someone knowing was enough to stop me from quietly disappearing.

Now I tell one person about anything I actually intend to finish. It is a tiny ritual and it works better than any productivity system I have tried.

Do you tell people about the things you are building, or do you keep them private until they are done? And which one actually gets things finished?