Audit your last seven days of behavior against stated values — your calendar reveals your actual priorities

Why This Is a Rule

Economists distinguish between stated preferences (what people say they value) and revealed preferences (what their behavior demonstrates they actually value). The gap between the two is often enormous and invisible without deliberate measurement. You say you value health, but your screen time report shows 4 hours of social media daily. You say you value deep work, but your calendar shows 6 hours of meetings. The behavioral data doesn't lie — it reveals what you actually prioritize, regardless of narrative.

Seven days is the right window: long enough to capture a representative sample of behavior patterns, short enough to audit from memory with supporting data. A single day might be atypical; a month blurs into narrative reconstruction. Seven days gives you raw behavioral data you can still cross-reference against calendar entries, screen time reports, bank statements, and energy logs.

The 1-10 scoring creates a quantified gap between aspiration and reality. "I'm a 3/10 on my stated value of physical health" is actionable in a way that "I should probably exercise more" is not. The score makes self-deception harder and creates a baseline for tracking improvement.

When This Fires

• During weekly reviews when assessing whether your week reflected your values
• At the start of quarterly planning when determining which values need structural support
• When you feel misaligned but can't articulate where — the audit reveals the specific gaps
• After a period of drift when you suspect behavior has diverged from stated priorities

Common Failure Mode

Auditing from memory rather than data. "I think I spent a lot of time on deep work this week" is a narrative, not an audit. Pull actual data: calendar events with durations, screen time reports, transaction history, workout logs. Memory overweights salient activities and underweights passive time sinks, systematically distorting the audit in favor of your self-narrative.

The Protocol

(1) List your top 5 stated values. (2) For each value, gather behavioral data from the last 7 days: calendar (time allocation), screen time (attention allocation), spending (resource allocation), energy patterns (engagement allocation). (3) For each value, score alignment from 1-10: does your actual behavior match what you'd expect from someone who holds this value? Be honest — the data is right there. (4) Any score below 5 identifies a values-behavior gap worth investigating (see When behavior contradicts values, investigate the reward structure — not your willpower deficit). (5) Track scores over time. The trend matters more than any single week — a rising alignment score means your structural changes are working.