Implementation intentions for encouraging early actions and behavior change

What worked for me is to phrase it with a high enough specificity ala Clear

But with different dimensions

I stated I wanted to try writing 500 words or 50 mins everyday for at least 3 days as an experiment earlier this week.

So [day] ☑️
Target 🎯 50 mins or 500 words whichever was easier ☑️
[timebox] 3 day experiment ☑️

Then I proceeded to procrastinated

On Monday I came across an advice to write no more than 250 words

Then I realized oh yeah maybe 500 is still psychologically too much for my unconscious

Changed to 250 words / 50 mins

Then next day i suddenly started writing. Ended up with more than 700 words but also closer to 2 hrs

2nd day: I also used an alarm so I won’t exceed 50 mins at least

Worked even better

So In general I agree with adding more specificity in terms of more dimensions

But I would argue being more specific is a means not an end. If it makes sense to add different constraints e.g. I added tjmebox not what Clear recommended, go for it

Also feel free to reduce constraints

For example I don’t have a specific time but I do intend my 250 words / 50 mins to be first work item of the day. I also don’t count thursdays which is already my usual day for writing.

Now I pass my experiment for 3 days. Version 2 is 12 days.

This style of breaking it down into smaller stepping stone steps is inspired by Sierra

You have to find your variant of ehqt Clear recommended and be honest when it’s not working is what I’m trying to say badly.

One way to keep honest is build in a check in time or timebox. Initially I set as 3 days check-in

Sorry on mobile cannot edit so end up posting multiple comments 

A list of possible dimensions for stronger habit commitments
1. Will do at least Y mins of X is input
2. Will produce at least Y units of X is output
3. Stack one input or output whichever is finished first 
4. For input/output target numbers lower the number or difficulty if still find it hard to get going
5. Specific time of the day to do X
6. Specific ordinal position to do X (e.g. first work item of the day)
7. After an existing habit (after coffee, after walk, after walk and shower, etc)
8. Before an existing habit (before I shut laptop and declare no more work for today) 
9. Add a reward right after doing X (after every session of X I go for lunch which is the reward)
10. Set a limit for how long the habit lasts as experiment ( every day of X for 3 days; evaluate by end of week)
11. When eval period or experiment ends, second round keep the same difficulty level for input/output but for longer eval period or increase difficulty but keep same length of eval period
12. Track streaks (after every session of X increase the number of X done by 1) if it’s a new eval period of X, don’t restart streak. Continue streak across different eval periods. If originally 3/3 in earlier eval period then change to 3/10 if new eval is now 7 days. Easier to start when the streak is 3/10 than 0/7
13. If have habit of planning the day tasks the night before/ or at top of day, include the habit in as a task to be done in the planning
Update
I just realized timeboxing meant something different than what I thought. it's closer to what Clear suggested about specific time of day with specific units of time dedicated. I want to elaborate on a particular dimension that Clear may or may not have mentioned.
Adopt Trial Period in New HabitI meant to say at point 10 with "set a limit for how long the habit lasts as experiment" as box in your new habit with a clear end date.

This is partly to address Counterwill

First of all, if you think about the successful habits in your life, they are almost invisible. For e.g. brushing your teeth. You don't have to write it down in your todo list about brushing your teeth. At least I hope not!

But when you're starting to grow a new habit, you have to be more intentional.  You have to write it down. You have to plan for it. It's a new change. And your old self will try to resist it somehow.

By boxing in your new habit with a clear end date, it's like a warranty period. Psychologically, it's like getting a new habit with a return policy. 

There's a choice to always stop when the end date rolls by. 
4 options at end of trial period
When the end date rolls by, you can choose to :
1.  stop by simply not setting a new trial period
2. set a new trial period that's a little tougher than the previous one with the same period length
3. set a new trial period that's longer than the previous one with the same difficulty level
4. set a new trial period with the same length and same difficulty level as the last one

That's your 4 options. You may ask what if you want to reduce the length or reduce the difficulty level for the new trial period?
When to reduce difficulty or trial period lengthMy response is: midway through or even as early as right from the beginning, you finding it difficult to get started or going, immediately reduce the difficulty right away.

Don't wait till end of trial period. Reduce the difficulty until you can at least get 3 successful attempts in a row.
 
Reduce difficulty by how much --- until it's laughable if you cannot complete  even one attempt 
One trick is reduce the difficulty to the point it's silly like go to gym and then turn around and go home still counts as going to gym once successfully.

By silly, I mean so laughably easy that if you cannot even complete one attempt, people will laugh at you.
 
If you still want to reduce trial period after your initially planned length but keep the difficulty level, I cannot stop you. (How could I?) 

Personally, I think that should be a distant second option if the new habit is off to a bad start. Always try to reduce the difficulty level first so you can quickly rack up 3 successful attempts.
Default trial setup for new habit is daily where possible and for 3 attempts in a row
Which is why i recommend as a default to go for daily habits and a trial period of 3 days. Try not to pick habits with too long a cadence unless you really have no choice such as doing really heavy exercises where you need to rest longer in between each attempt.

In cases where you really cannot do daily, pick the highest frequency possible and pick no more than 3 iterations as your first trial period.

If you need to wait a long time in between each habit attempt, then the habit will take longer to develop. Weekly or monthly habits are harder to debug than daily habits because their iteration cycles take longer to finish.

So for writing, the lowest difficulty setting might even be open a new file and name the empty file as today's date. Save it and mark off as you completing today's writing attempt.
Establishing my credibilityI also realized I need to add credibility to back up what I have said. So I want to attach this real and undoctored photo of my getting in shape photo pre-pandemic. It was the result of a series of habits.

Sadly, I no longer look like that anymore 😄

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Synchronicity in the matrix

During the  writing session i had earlier this week and the immediate sesion right after this post, Brian McCann who led the session  told me about this author Robert Maurer and his book One Small Step Can Change Your Life.

Here's a youtube interview I recommend
Halfway reading through the book, I already have 4 big takeaways:
1.  What adults think as stress/anxiety is actually fear because they are taught they can change things. Unlike children, who are familiar with being helpless, always use the word "fear"
2. Choose the ridiculously trivial for the incremental change.

Innovation == big bang vs Kaizen == incremental

    Innovation (big bang) triggers fear as it's so big. Kaizen (incremental) doesn't precisely because it's so small

    The trick is to choose the seemingly ridiculously trivial as the incremental change.
3. When you aim at improvement of 1%, how do you stop improving at 1%?
4. The brain cannot reject a question

Asking big questions can inspire or cause fear. If the question triggers neutral or positive feelings, the question might still be difficult to answer. So just simply ask yourself the question everyday at least once over long enough period of time. The brain will eventually find an answer.

> “What's one thing I wish to contribute to the world with my book, poem, 
song, or painting?
> 'Whom could I ask for help or Inspiration?
>'What Is special about my creative process/talents/business team?
> 'What type of work would excite and fulfill me?
>Remember: If you repeat the question over the course of several days or 
weeks-or for however long it takes-the hippocampus (the part of the brain that stores Information) will have no choice but to address It. And In its own way, on its own timetable, the brain will begin giving you answers.”

If the question triggers negative feelings such as fear,  ask small questions but just as frequently.

What's the one minute I can do everyday to lose weight?
What's the one trivial thing I can do everyday to reach my goal eventually and inevitably?

Summarize as algo: Ask yourself how-to questions to reach big goals without trying to answer it. Ask everyday over long enough period to allow unconscious to eventually find an answer. If the question is fear triggering, then refactor the question to be "smaller" until question is no longer triggering or at least neutral. Keep the high-frequency, everyday asking regardless.

I really like the trial period concept -- I'll be applying that immediately ;). 

The anxiety-vs-fear contrast also sounds important -- going to check out that book. 

For big questions, I read somewhere recently "is this action enlarging or diminishing me" as a guiding-principle question. I liked that one.

Great stuff as always. (And I hope you're saving these things and/or posting them elsewhere; your posts and comments deserve a larger audience.)

Another stray article in the matrix that resonated this time it’s Brandon Sanderson 3 tips about writing

https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2022/02/25/brandon-sandersons-advice-for-doing-hard-things/

I note his first and third tips about setting better goals, and breaking down are similar to the kaizen material espoused by Maurer

The second tip is indirectly related. I noted how across my “continuous trial periods”, I constantly tweaked to make things just a little bit harder and yet within each trial period I will also try to make things easier.

This was all super helpful!

I am managing a lot right + just committed to a fat loss % challenge now and I need a series of habits to get me to where I am going.  

The trial period is a really cool idea...three days makes even the hardest challenge seem less daunting.  

I've got the YT video ready to roll for later today.

I recently discovered the writings of Karla Starr and she cited this academic paper about making lasting positive change A complex dynamic systems approach to lasting positive change: The Synergistic Change Model: The Journal of Positive Psychology: Vol 13, No 4 (tandfonline.com)

Here are two useful figures in that paper.

Long story short is there's no one silver bullet. Everything affects everything else.
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I like the way you think! Very thorough