How to build personal systems that solve your self-control challenges.

Thread

1) GET CLEAR ON YOUR INTENTIONS

One common and avoidable reason why we struggle to close our intention-action gaps is that we catch UNHELPFUL intentions.

How does this happen:
1) Emulation of influencers
2) Emulation of friends/family
3) Wellness/self-improvement media

Avoid taking on a practice just because your favourite podcaster spoke about it. Slow down when you find yourself pulled towards a new exercise routine your friends mentioned.

REMEMBER:
We are social creatures at our core, wired for influence. Check the roots of your intentions.

A better approach? Get systematic.

Yes, it is less sexy.

Flying by the seat of your pants is exhilarating, sure. And perhaps there is a case for making space for a sort of 'practice tourism'.

The honeymoon phase is sweet but short, unfortunately.

How to get systematic with selecting practices:

• Zoom out (Look at your big picture)
• Examine your aspirations and values
• Focus in (what's NB right now?)
• Identify the related outcome measures
• Map the contributing practices/behaviours
• Prioritise the practices

Prioritise your practices along four key dimensions:

• Enjoyment - How enjoyable will this be?
• Capability - How capable am I of consistent practice?
• Leverage - How effective will this practice be?
• Complementarity - How does this practice fit in?

2) STRUCTURE YOUR INTENTIONS

Once you have systematically selected the intended practice, the next step is to structure that intention as a behaviour-based goal.

How?
• Get specific
• Lock in a frequency and the contextual features
• Map the action sequence + dependencies

3) CONDUCT A PREMORTEM

Now that you have a clear picture in mind of what your recurring practice looks like, you can map the failure states.

Ask yourself:
• How might I fail and why?
• How could I prevent these failure states?
• How could I respond to these failure states?

4) DESIGN YOUR PERSONAL SYSTEM

Okay, so now you have a clear picture of your intended practice (and how you might fail).

Next, you can start putting your personal system together.

Why is it helpful to build a personal system?
https://twitter.com/DavidPerrott_/status/1332266034070433792

Personal Systems Components:

• System Goal
• Cognitive Interventions
• Situational Interventions
• Feedback Mechanisms

Details below

SYSTEM GOAL:

This is the 'intended' purpose of your personal system.

When the system is successfully leading to the intended practice we can say there is alignment between the goal and the system function.

https://twitter.com/DavidPerrott_/status/1332266035895005189

COGNITIVE INTERVENTIONS:

These are once-off or recurring activities that directly activate or inhibit particular mental representations in support of the function.

POPULAR TOOLS:
• Identity Frames
• Self-Priming
• Messengers
• Comparison
• Personal Rules

SITUATIONAL INTERVENTIONS:

These are once-off or recurring implementations that change the physical, social or digital context in which the intended practice takes place.

PRINCIPLES:
• Consider the role of cues
• Consider the role of friction
• Consider the role of enjoyment

This ontology was initially inspired by @angeladuckw and @katy_milkman's neat framework on self-control strategies.

I summarised their work in a thread earlier this year: https://twitter.com/DavidPerrott_/status/1272240576960790530

FEEDBACK MECHANISMS:

These include the implementation of passive trackers, recurring active trackers and reflection, iteration and integration exercises.

PRINCIPLES
• Consider the role of affect triggers
• Consider the role of tracking
• Consider the role of progress visuals

PERSONAL SYSTEM BLUEPRINT EXAMPLE*

*This example was inspired by a real personal system blueprint that one of my past participants designed and successfully implemented.

5) TEST YOUR PERSONAL SYSTEM

The likelihood that your initial personal system design is going to be effective in consistently producing the practice or intended behaviour is low.

You are going to need to experiment with different variations, iterate and test again.

Importantly you want to test the system at different scales.

Measuring at 3 typical scales:
• Behavioural - Performance of the intended practice
• Physiological - Influence on key bio-markers
• Psychological - Self-reported mental states

Self-Experimentation Phases:

• Week 0: Design your experiment
• Week 1: Run variations of the system
• Week 2+3: Settle into a single variation
• Week 4: Reflect on the system's performance

This will inform your decision on whether to stop, adjust or integrate the system.

If you want to explore personal system building more deeply, I run a programme every two months.

The next one kicks off in mid-Jan 2021.

You can join the waiting list here: https://bit.ly/33Kjd0t 

I'm also building a community of practitioners who are excited about the intersection of applied behavioural science, systems thinking and self-experimentation.

You can become a member by subscribing via the Circles in Time substack page. https://citbesci.substack.com/